Ma’s Double Ten double cross
The Hollywood movie Saving Private Ryan has a macabre scene in which a German soldier of imposing physique overpowers through a stealthy maneuver a comparatively diminutive young US soldier. The German muzzles the American as he stabs him in the chest with his bayonet.
What is most striking is that, all the while, the German whispers soothing sounds into one of the American’s ears to weaken the latter’s will to resist.
That same spine-chilling contrast appears to exist between President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mollifying speech to the Taiwanese masses on the occasion of celebrating the recent birthday of the Republic of China (ROC) and what Ma and company have been doing to Taiwan and Taiwanese beneath the surface. What’s uncanny is that the day is better known as Double Ten Day, a name which in its Chinese characters means “Double Cross” Day and aptly describes Ma’s conduct on this day in particular and on any other day in general.
In an interview less than a week earlier, Ma famously gloated that “China is part of the ROC, according to the Constitution.” Bending facts, he was telling the world that the ROC is nothing but a fiction and that the Constitution is suffering a reality deficit.
This was done while his lieutenants were clandestinely advancing his grand dream of subjugating Taiwan under China.
People who have had a hard time understanding why Taiwanese have allowed matters to deteriorate to such an extent must have underestimated Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ability to misinform, to bribe and, if those two fail to “persuade,” to intimidate.
The KMT’s control of a majority of media outlets, its legendary stolen party assets and its members’ domination of most government bureaucracies together should explain it.
In reality, the KMT applies the same mode of operation to hush internal dissent.
Reportedly, KMT legislators who ventured to raise any criticism against Ma were threatened with either withholding of resources for their reelections or hints of legal troubles related to extracurricular activities which most of the KMT legislators are traditionally and famously known to engage in. The legislature has quickly and essentially become a mere Ma accomplice rather than his counterweight.
Without checks and balances, Ma is accountable to no one. Voters’ pre-election notion that they could always recall Ma if things don’t pan out proved to be a blind belief in democratic recourse. Democracy, once an inconvenience to the KMT for encouraging opposing views, has been incorporated by Ma to become a cover — or even a rubber stamp — for his subterranean doings.
It doesn’t help if Ma believes that Taiwan belongs to China and that it is the sacred duty of a person of Chinese lineage to strive to return Taiwan to its “rightful owner.” The fact remains that Ma was able to con his way through a cloud of public suspicion and stepped into a position where he now has all the apparatuses of government at his fingertips.
To guard against any simmering massive nonviolent resistance which now portends the only thing standing between him and his goal, Ma and the KMT tirelessly wave in front of the public that formidable scarecrow: An uncontrollable disturbance in Taiwan would invite China’s invasion.
But with time running out, Taiwanese can’t afford the luxury of either indulging in the self-pity of ruing their votes of March 22 or weighing a hypothetical threat.
Rather, only a mighty push upward with all the strength Taiwanese can muster has any chance of saving themselves and Taiwan from Ma’s plunging knife.
HUANG JEI-HSUAN
Los Angeles, California
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