Editorial: No one to blame but themselves

Since last Saturday, Taiwan politics have been embroiled in a ludicrous battle that began with the launching ceremony of the Northern Taiwan Society (台灣北社). Both President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his predecessor Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) attended the event and gave their blessings to the pro-Taiwan group. The sight of Chen and Lee sharing the stage made opposition politicians turn green -- and left them sputtering and waving their arms. Much mut-tering has since been heard that cooperation between the two men will create ethnic confrontation, that Lee is calling the shots from behind a curtain and that he is also trying to create a "bi-presidential" system.

Such senseless criticism reflects the ignorance of opposition politicians and their rejection of a "Taiwan consciousness."

Taiwan awareness does not have to do with one's ethnic background or nationality. But for someone who grew up in Taiwan and was nurtured by this land to deny any feeling of love for the country would indeed appear incomprehensible and even unacceptable. Senior presidential advisor Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) put it succinctly: "For people who live on Taiwan and love Taiwan, it would be strange not to be `pro-local,'" ie pro-Taiwan. People who truly love Taiwan have an appreciation for this land and a desire to safeguard it flowing in their blood. This love and appreciation is the source of a Taiwan consciousness.

Such a consciousness or awareness, however, is not the exclusive right of people born and brought up here. We only need to look at Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay, who devoted a lifetime's work to educating the Taiwanese people more than a century ago; Chang Chung-tung (張忠棟), a mainlander and National Taiwan University professor who contributed to the tangwai (黨外, outside the KMT) movement during the martial law era; and Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), another mainlander who is now serving as deputy governor of the central bank, to see that a love of Taiwan can flourish among transplants and immigrants.

It would be interesting to ask what is prompting so many professionals from across the cultural and academic strata to form quasi-political organizations at this point in time (there is also the Central Taiwan Society, Southern Taiwan Society and the soon-to-be-established Eastern Taiwan Society). One thing is clear though. This intellectual rallying together can be traced back to more than a year ago with the establishment of the Southern Taiwan Society and the Central Taiwan Society. These organizations started out as forums for intellectuals concerned about Taiwan's future and grass-roots level development in central and southern Taiwan. But a sense of crisis appears to have emerged among these intellectuals as the KMT and the People First Party -- two parties that share a "greater China" platform -- began singing the praises of "one China" and using their legislative majority to create political turmoil at a time when the economy is in the doldrums.

In other words, Taiwan consciousness would not have risen to the point that it has become an issue had it not been stirred up by the opposition parties' abuse of their legislative majority and the quisling behavior of many legislators who sound more like Beijing's puppets than representatives of the people of Taiwan.

The irony here is that the unscrupulous behavior of the opposition parties and their erroneous proposals for Taiwan's future direction have actually brought about the last thing they wanted to see -- a rallying of the pro-Taiwan forces.