Last Thursday, 100,000 people gathered at Taipei's Zhongshan Soccer Stadium to commemorate the 228 Incident. The nature of the tragedy that took place 61 years ago was two-fold: The Chiang family asserted its autocratic rule by means of a massacre; and the alien regime used violence to destroy Taiwanese identity. Therefore, commemorating the victims of the 228 Incident is an effort not only to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy but to improve the democratic system and safeguard Taiwanese identity.
For Taiwanese, "identity" means that they have the right to decide what their own culture and country are. But if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were to stage a comeback in the presidential elections less than 20 days from now, it would cast a shadow on democracy and damage Taiwanese identity.
First, now that the pan-blue political parties control three-quarters of the legislative seats, if the KMT were to gain executive power, there would be no system of checks and balances in the government. Taiwan would become a single-party system and thus less democratic.
An example of this is Singapore, where the party of former prime minister Lee Kwan Yew (李光耀), controls more than three-quarters of the legislative seats and rules the city-state as a one-party authoritarian regime. Singapore was ranked as "not free" in the Global Press Freedom 2007 report by the human-rights organization Freedom House.
Such a situation is very rare in Western countries with mature democracies. If we allow a political party that autocratically ruled Taiwan for half of a century and now has close relations with rival China to completely control Taiwan's political system, the consequences could be grim.
Also, the KMT candidates' plan for a common market with China comes down to killing Taiwanese identity with soft measures, as opposed to oppressing it with violence as in the 228 Incident. A common market is another path paving the way for unification.
Because of the US, China cannot annex Taiwan by military means, so Beijing's other is to engender economic and cultural unification. The common market policy of KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his followers is exactly what Beijing wants, because this allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to use its tactics and to exercise influence in Taiwan under the guise of a common market.
Chinese products, Chinese culture and Chinese ideology -- that is, chauvinism with nationalism at the core -- will enter Taiwan, and the pan-blue camp will chime in. The result could very well be the formation of a pro-unification mentality that would eventually take Taiwan toward some form of unification. By that time, even if Ma doesn't want unification, it might be hard to avoid. In any case Ma has said he wants "eventual reunification."
This is like the Chiang era, when Taiwan forged an anti-communist mentality. At that time, even if Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) or his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) came up with new ideas, such as when former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) brought up an alliance with the CCP, such ideas could not be put into practice, even though the Chiangs had power. This was because the mentality of society as a whole had made such ideas impossible.
The common market policy paves the way toward a mentality that is completely contrary to that of the Chiang era -- a pro-Chinese mentality -- and eventually to a pro-Beijing and pro-unification mentality. Once this mentality is formed, it might be very difficult to defend not just Taiwanese identity, but Taiwan's democracy and independence.
That's why the presidential election is not just a choice between two men, but a choice for the future of Taiwan.
Cao Changqing is a political commentator based in the US.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout and ted yang
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