Editorial: The KMT's kamikaze mission

There's a popular saying in Taiwan that is used to describe someone who enjoys the fruits of another's hard work, "the beggar chases the monk from the monastery." In the past, Taiwanese often used this saying to describe the KMT's rule, in the sense that the party was like the beggar who originally came to a monastery to stay for a few days, but ended up chasing the abbot away and settling in to run things himself. People who understand Hokkien and heard this saying during the martial law period -- which was marked by severe restrictions on the freedom of speech -- didn't need any explanation; they would simply smile in understanding.

The fact that the saying can be used as easily to describe the KMT today as it was 10, 20, or 40 years ago epitomizes the lunacy of politics in Taiwan and the self-destructiveness of the party itself.

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) continued his lambasting of the KMT on Sunday in Taichung, saying that its current leadership is taking the party in the wrong direction. Lee said the KMT has changed from its anti-communist stance to a "join the Communists" position and is selling out Taiwan. He went on to say that if the KMT wanted to deal with his alleged violation of party discipline, it needed to deal with those who have changed the party's orientation first.

In response, KMT workers could do little more than parrot the director-general of the party's Evaluation and Discipline Committee, Chen Keng-chin (陳庚金), who said: "If he doesn't care for the KMT, then let's help him!" That should have Lee quaking in his boots.

The KMT's schedule for dealing with Lee is actually quite obvious. Chao Shou-po (趙守博), the director-general of the KMT's Organization and Development Committee, has implied that October would be the best time to deal with Lee's violations (strip him of party membership). Waiting until then will neither have too much of an influence on the December elections nor hurt the KMT too much.

The problem is that the party leaders seem to have forgotten that if it wasn't for Lee's 12-year effort to "Taiwanize" the KMT, this Leninist revolutionary party would have collapsed at the end of the Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) era in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It is a miracle that the KMT managed to stay alive 10 years longer than the Communist parties of Eastern Europe. And it is contemptible that the KMT leadership doesn't have the sense to thank Lee, but instead can only criticize him.

It is because Lee made "Taiwanization" and "Taiwan first" his goals during his years in power that he enjoys such high prestige among Taiwanese today. That prestige, coupled with his high standing in the media means he can have a profound influence both on the general political situation and on the year-end elections.

It is not Lee that should be asking how he could stray from the party that brought him to leadership -- rather it is the KMT that should be reflecting on where it went wrong. It is Lee's anger over the KMT's shift from "Taiwanization" to "Sinicization" and its attempt to form an anti-DPP alliance with the Communist leadership in Beijing that has lead him to back the formation of the Taiwan Solidarity Union and renew his fight for Taiwan.

Today, Lee is the abbot being chased out of the monastery by the beggar. If the KMT doesn't have enough sense to make a U-turn away from "Sinicization" drive and try to salvage its political future, it doesn't deserve to survive -- and it won't.