The fact that the loyalty of Ma-Li-Chiang (馬立強, high horsepower) -- the slang abbreviation used to describe the KMT trio of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (Hu Chih-chiang, 胡志強) -- has become a hot topic only proves two things: President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is a sharp guy and the KMT is stupid beyond redemption.
Chen's frequent shows of goodwill toward the trio of course stem from his having ulterior motives. But hoping that Chen has been able to cozy up to or win the three over is the dream of a fool.
Each member of the Ma-Li-Chiang trio has a wide support base of his own. A majority of these supporters probably op-pose Chen, and this is why Chen's goodwill toward the three mainly is a show put on for the benefit of their supporters. If these supporters soften their anti-Chen stance because Chen is being friendly toward the people they support, then the president's strategy is successful.
There are also those who say that Chen's show of goodwill toward the trio is an attempt by him to neutralize them before next year's presidential election, so that they will not make any vicious moves against him. But people who think that either lack an understanding of politics, or do not understand Ma-Li-Chiang.
Their blood is blue and thick. They have been brought up on KMT mother's milk since they were young. The KMT has its mark all over them and they even smell 100 percent like the KMT. In an election stand-off between the two parties, they will take the initiative to fly the blue banner against the green even without the party ordering them to do so. There is absolutely no chance that they will remain neutral on the sidelines.
But yet there are people in the KMT so stupid that they fall for Chen's tricks. Chen's goodwill toward the trio should really lead to infighting in the DPP and a reaction from the party, just as former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) attempt at nourishing the DPP created a counter-reaction from many people in the KMT. Who would have thought that a few of Chen's flirtatious looks at the three would make people in the KMT think he would be unfaithful to the DPP?
Chen is busy sowing dissent, even an idiot knows that, but the KMT still swallows the bait, hook and all. If that isn't being stupid beyond redemption, then how could this be happening?
Even stranger, the trio represent the few trump cards remaining in the KMT and they are the party's future leaders. Both the leadership and ordinary members within the KMT should praise them and hail them with hands clasped. Yet there are people belittling them, saying that the three are mainlanders, that they are scaring voters away in the south and that praising them too much could create a negative backlash. Such denigrations should be coming from the DPP, but now the KMT is shouting things out loud that even the DPP cannot make itself say. It's as if the KMT wants the whole world to know the shortcomings of the three. Strange indeed.
It is true that the trio all have their roots on the mainland. But they all won election by landslide victories, which shows that their being mainlanders is not a negative factor. What's more, if they really are scaring voters away in the south, all the more reason for them to head down there to open up new vistas by winning over the minds of people there. Must they be confined to the area north of Chuoshui River, always to pay obeisance to the leaders in Taipei?
A party that doubts the loyalty of its people for the smallest of reasons, always full of suspicion and chasing shadows, time and again forcing its own to prove their innocence could only be described by the word "stupid."
Wang Chien-chuang is president of the Journalist magazine.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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