|
The Liberty Times
Editorial: Ma’s thinking stuck in feudal times
As everyone knows, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) head is full of all things
“China” and “Chinese.” It is ironic the elected president of Taiwan should be so
preoccupied with Chinese ideology and it would be hard to find such a leader in
any other modern democracy. Recently, as part of his campaign for re-election in
January, Ma has been making a big issue about “reading the classics,” and the
Ministry of Education has acted accordingly by making the “Four Books” — The
Analects, Mencius, Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean — mandatory reading
in the high-school curriculum. Ma’s penchant for delving into these ancient
texts once again reveals his deep-rooted feudal mindset, but what is worse is he
insists on making students follow his example. This point alone shows how
undemocratic his thinking is.
There are plenty of classic works in the world and China itself has many other
classic texts apart from the Four Books. However, Ma’s preference is for those
books that were favored by Chinese emperors down the centuries — books that
served the rulers’ purpose by helping control the minds of their subjects.
Although the classics that Ma loves to recite are not without their reference
value, they are riddled with the “three cardinal guides and five constant
virtues” that formed the basis of Chinese feudal ethics. If readers are not
careful, they will get infected with these outmoded ideas, and Ma himself has
clearly caught the bug without being aware of it.
Ma’s trademark during the three years since he took office has been his
headstrong style of government, which fits in very well with one of the dictums
of the classics he keeps promoting, namely the Confucian saying that “the people
may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand
it.” In other words, all a ruler has to do is to make sure his subjects
obediently do as they are told and there is no need to make people understand
why. Isn’t that just what happened when Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and
the Chinese Communist Party signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement
(ECFA)? Ma has never been interested in letting people know the details of the
ECFA, only in trumpeting its benefits. As long as people obediently support the
government’s policy, that is okay in Ma’s view. This is just the kind of harm
that can come from reading the Confucian classics if one is not careful.
That is not to say there are no good points to be learned from reading the
classics. For example, Confucius (孔子) also said the superior man despises those
who act as they wish and then make up reasons to justify their actions. It is a
warning to the reader not to do one thing and say another, and not to use fancy
phrases to cover up one’s misdeeds. Unfortunately, Ma has not learned the lesson
in this case. On the contrary, he frequently resorts to verbal evasion.
While everyone knows he is in favor of eventual unification with China, he says
there will be “no unification” while he is in charge. He obviously thinks there
is only one China, yet he talks about “one China, with each side having its own
interpretation.” Notably, he certainly has, or had, a US green card, but when
someone found out about it he first denied it and then said his green card had
expired. We are still waiting for him to show proof of the supposed expiration.
It is worrying to realize that Ma applies millennia-old feudal thinking when
dealing with the global realities of the 21st century.
His anachronistic mindset is particularly perilous for Taiwan’s sovereignty. On
Teacher’s Day on Wednesday last week, Ma, as is his habit, quoted from the
writings of ancient sages. Choosing this time a quote from Mencius, he said: “He
who with a great State serves a small one, delights in Heaven. He who with a
small State serves a large one, stands in awe of Heaven. He who delights in
Heaven will affect with his love and protection the whole kingdom. He who stands
in awe of Heaven will affect with his love and protection his own kingdom.”
Ma presented this as an explanation of relations between the two sides of the
Taiwan Strait.
Someone should remind Ma that we are now in the 21st century and international
relations should be conducted in accordance with international law. If Ma’s
brain is so tied up with notions of “delighting in heaven” and “standing in awe
of heaven,” then it’s no wonder that Taiwan’s sovereignty is going down the
drain.
Ma, who seems unconcerned about not having made good on his “6-3-3” campaign
pledge to achieve annual economic growth of 6 percent, an unemployment rate of 3
percent and a per capita GDP of US$30,000, is not the only one who has read the
classics without any positive effect. Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is another
example. Judging by how frequently Wu quotes from the classics, he must have
spent quite a lot of time reading them. Yet, back when he was mayor of Kaohsiung,
people in southern Taiwan nicknamed him “Liar Yih” (白賊義). Evidently, not
everyone who reads the classics becomes virtuous as a result.
A more recent example is Wu’s meeting in July with farmers’ groups. Most of the
people attending had probably read less of the classics than Wu has, but in the
course of a little more than an hour, Wu muttered a common curse word at least
five times — another good example of how reading the classics does not
necessarily have any beneficial effect.
During the early years of the Republic of China, philosopher Hu Shi (胡適) said
that, in our day, to talk deludingly about reading the classics and to call for
students to read the classics is ignorant talk that knowledgeable people would
not even consider worth laughing at. Ma is far inferior to Hu in his
understanding of Chinese culture. Why does the president feel compelled to prove
his inferiority by going on about reading the classics and how school students
should read them?
If Ma really has faith in democracy, he should clean out the pernicious
influence of one-party-state education. He should promote democratic and
pluralistic civic education instead of stubbornly pushing Chinese feudal
culture.
If we are going to talk about “soft power” for Taiwan, we should take advantage
of Taiwan’s geographical and historical advantages, such as its combination of
maritime and continental cultures, its blend of Austronesian, Asian and Western
cultures and its transformation from authoritarianism to democracy, emphasizing
their positive aspects as they apply to Taiwan. Ma’s advocacy of reading the
classics leads in just the opposite direction by locking Taiwan into a backward
world of one-party rule and feudalistic social relations.
If Ma insists on following that path, the only thing for the public to do is to
throw him out. That is the way to ensure that Taiwan progresses along the right
path — a path that is compatible with universal values.
Translated By Julian Clegg
|
