The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to take to the streets of Taipei and Kaohsiung on Sunday to voice its displeasure with the government and what the DPP deems its pro-China policies.
The rally will take place three days before the first anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration and will give those unhappy with his administration’s headlong tilt toward China the chance to express their opposition.
The decision by the opposition to take its case to the streets stems partly from the DPP’s frustration with its impotence in the legislature. With just a quarter of the legislative seats to show despite having garnered 37 percent of the vote, the only way for its legislators to delay the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from pushing ahead with the executive’s pro-China agenda is to boycott meetings and sessions. While such tactics can be effective in the short term, the electorate will soon tire of them.
When Ma took office 12 months ago, it was expected that he would go much further than his predecessors in cultivating ties with Beijing. But the speed at which his administration has moved has come as a great shock.
Even Beijing appears to be surprised by the pace of things and has temporarily put the brakes on Ma’s race to ink an economic cooperation framework agreement.
Meanwhile, Ma and his government have taken a lot of criticism for their inept response to the global economic crisis, which has hit Taiwan’s export-driven market harder than most. But those wishing to revel in the KMT’s apparent economic incompetence should step back and consider the bigger picture.
This crisis could not have come at a more opportune time for the KMT’s unificationist elements. The KMT is using the situation to its advantage and is trying to push Taiwan’s economy even further into China’s sphere. At a loss for solutions to the domestic effects of the meltdown, the KMT has instead resorted to portraying China as the panacea for all of the nation’s economic woes, proposing policies that will allow Chinese investment in most sectors in Taiwan, including, most worrying of all, the media.
Once this happens, it will become very difficult for Taiwan to extricate itself from Chinese manipulation.
The KMT is jeopardizing Taiwan’s sovereignty by putting all of the nation’s economic eggs in China’s basket. But so far public reaction to these proposed acts of economic treachery has been muted. The indifference is either the product of the famous pragmatism of the Taiwanese or the fact that people have been too preoccupied trying to make ends meet to speak out.
Either way, this weekend’s protest will serve as a yardstick for public sentiment.
People are hurting. Unemployment stands at a decades-high and tens of thousands of workers have been forced to take unpaid leave.
The question is how many of them will be willing to venture out on Sunday and give voice to their pain.
While the KMT is able to fend off the DPP in the legislature, a larger-than-expected turnout for Sunday’s rallies would give the DPP a boost and could make government officials sit up and take notice.
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