Whether in relation to constitutional reform or the presidential inauguration, the national flag has become a point of discussion. To avoid controversy, President Chen Shui-bian (
The government even ordered that members of the public participating in the inauguration ceremony carry the national flag. At the end of the ceremony, these flags were scattered over the ground. This prompted a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator to say that the flag had been treated in the same way as a condom -- used once and thrown away. While this was a somewhat far-fetched analogy, the fact that the flags were left lying on the ground does indicate that green-camp supporters have little feeling for it.
In the KMT-People First Party (PFP) protests that followed the March 20 presidential elections, many participants held the national flag, seeming to indicate that the flag was the "exclusive property" of the blue camp and a symbol unloved by the greens. Even former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) made use of the flag after he had been accused of sexually assaulting a maid, a matter he settled with a NT$800,000 payout to get the woman to go home and keep the matter from going further. He was met at the airport by supporters, at which time he ostentatiously waved the national flag and called out: "Long live the Republic of China."
It isn't easy to see the connection between the flag, Taiwan's official name and Feng's philandering with a Filipina maid. Should the maid's supporters have brought out the Philippine flag to balance things out?
But from such incidents it is possible to see the different ways in which the flag is regarded by the blue and green camps. It is a difference that is easily understood.
The flag of the Republic of China (ROC) is a white sun in a blue sky with a red background. The white sun in a blue sky is the KMT party flag and also its badge. The existence of this flag is incontrovertible proof of the one-party state that ruled the ROC for so many decades. Now that Taiwan has become a democratic country and has had a transition of power, shouldn't we do something to change these symbols?
The same is true of now irrelevant words in the national anthem such as "the Three Principles of the People, on which our party is based." The national anthem started life as the party anthem of the KMT. In 1912, when the provisional government was established in Nanking, it adopted the five-colored flag, representing the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Uygur and Tibetan ethnic groups. In 1920, when Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) was elected as "extraordinary" president through an extraordinary session of the legislature, the national flag also gained "extraordinary" status. Sun ordered that the five-colored flag be replaced by the "white sun in a blue sky on a red background." So, strictly speaking, Sun is only the father of the KMT and not the father of a democratic ROC.
But for various historical reasons, changing the national flag is not a simple matter. The DPP should instruct its supporters that before the flag is officially changed, the current flag must continue to serve as an official symbol of Taiwan, and as such they should respect it. With respect to the KMT, if they truly accept the fact that they have become a political party within a democratic system and recognize the transfer of power, they should be the first to raise the issue of changing the flag and the national anthem to demonstrate this fact.
If, on the other hand, they not only don't raise this matter, but in fact are nostalgic for the one-party state, even hoping that it might be brought back, and wish to use the national flag as a weapon to attack their opponents, then clearly they are behind the times.
As China also rejects any changes to the name of the country, its flag and its national anthem, any attempt by the blue camp to oppose changes might give rise to suspicions of a KMT-PRC alliance, and ultimately that the KMT has betrayed Taiwan. Of course, the KMT has a way of escaping from this bind; namely changing its own party flag. (The words to the national anthem can also be changed.) If the KMT and the PFP are really going to merge, then the KMT flag will necessarily disappear, dissipating the powerful connection between the party and the white sun in a blue sky on a red background.
Ling Feng is a commentator based in New York.
Translated by Ian Bartholomew
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