During his recent overseas visit, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
In fact, making complaints abroad against the government had been the DPP's exclusive domain in the past. Before it came to power in 2000, almost all activists who participated in Taiwan's opposition movement made such complaints while residing or visiting abroad. They even turned this into an organized and systematic movement. The former KMT government seriously suffered from such complaints before, as Taiwan's diplomats spent a great amount of resources (including manpower, money and time) dealing with them.
The KMT condemned the DPP for making such complaints at that time. Its reason? The opposition could have criticized the government here in Taiwan. Why would it cry for foreigners' help? Today, the DPP is condemning the KMT for the same reason. It even believes that to criticize the government is to attack the nation -- something those opposition leaders should never do.
Moreover, DPP members have a logic of their own regarding making such complaints: not only did the KMT government impose martial law and autocratic rule, but it also suppressed democracy and arrested many innocent people. Without international help, they could never end the KMT's rule. Not to mention that the DPP's overseas complaints were proven to be highly effective.
But times have changed. Taiwan has long become a democratic country, and it's unnecessary for the opposition to make complaints abroad. Therefore, according to the DPP's logic, Lien was merely attacking the ruling party and intentionally humiliating the government, making Taiwan a joke of the world.
Although this logic appears to be reasonable, it's a reflection of the DPP's psychology: "The magistrates are free to set fires, while the common people are forbidden even to light lamps" (
If the DPP thinks that it was okay to complain overseas against the autocratic KMT, why can't the KMT also complain overseas against the DPP administration's failure? Which one is more reasonable -- making a complaint abroad against the government for not being democratic or not running the nation well? There is no answer to this argument, which is extremely tedious indeed.
Although most politicians make complaints overseas whenever they can, some of them would never do so. For example, the late academic Hu Shi (
Indeed, politicians in the West seldom bring domestic political or partisan struggles onto the world stage. Those who are in Taiwan's political circles always emphasize the nation's independent sovereignty. But only a few of them have refrained from making complaints while abroad over the past decades. No one knows when they will learn from Hu. Perhaps President Chen Shui-bian (
Wang Chien-chuang is the president of The Journalist magazine.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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