EDITORIAL: Chiang Kai-shek's party favor

The legislative elections appear to be not so much a contest between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), in his capacity as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) as it is between Chen and dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

There is good reason for the DPP to be pessimistic about its prospects in next month's elections. The party has been in power for more than seven years; consequently it has few issues to explore with a fresh voice. The legislative elections -- which require strong policy initiatives and local campaigns -- have been neglected as a consequence.

The new single-district, two-ballot system is also unlikely to benefit the DPP, which will struggle to garner anywhere near half of the seats in the legislature. But there is some interest over which DPP candidates can take advantage of the largely irrelevant issue of mausoleums containing the tyrants of yesteryear.

Firm KMT resistance to changing the name of the former Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the wording on the front gate's plaques seems to be consistent with a DPP strategy of making the KMT appear fanatical and beholden to peripheral causes.

This appearance has been reinforced by the KMT's response to the removal of military guards from the mausoleums of Chiang and his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). Relocating their remains -- either domestically or across the Strait -- has embarrassed the KMT even more now that the extended Chiang family has restarted its longstanding feud with itself.

The DPP government's decision to remove guards from the mausoleums and have the Taoyuan County Government take over their management are eminently reasonable -- and from the perspective of the victims of the White Terror, absolutely necessary.

When Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡), Chiang Ching-kuo's daughter-in-law and a token member of the KMT Central Standing Committee, announced that the mausoleums would be moved to Zhejiang Province in China -- the home of the Chiang clan -- independence supporters had reason to celebrate: What better prospect than to have men with such putrid records removed from Taiwanese soil and forever placed in a country more sympathetic to their methods?

The Cabinet had planned to move the Chiangs to the Wuchihshan Military Cemetery, which the Chiang family had agreed to, and the government allocated nearly US$1 million for renovations.

But because KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) -- who has refashioned his electoral appeal by stressing his blood links to despots -- did not want Chen to preside over any ceremony, the family delayed the move. Now, with family members arguing among themselves over the relocation, the rest of us can only watch and roll our eyes.

The KMT was a foreign government that considered itself temporarily based in Taiwan. It wanted to rule all of China. Such sentiment still exists in the party; no wonder that the fourth-generation Demos Chiang (蔣友柏) -- who has his feet on the ground and not his mind buried under it -- is so keen to distance himself from this circus.

The family matters of the Chiangs have become KMT matters on the eve of national elections for the legislature and the presidency. This shows that the Chiang family is still intimately connected to the KMT's vision for Taiwan.

The DPP surely must be congratulating itself that, after all this time, it still has Chiang Kai-shek to thank for exposing the KMT's hollow core -- and obscuring its own inability to develop a substantial legislative campaign.