The confidential US diplomatic cables involving Taiwan from 2007 to 2009 released by WikiLeaks on Aug. 30 have shed light on the relationships between senior members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and their competition for power. The scariest part of these leaked cables are details about how the likes of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have been struggling for power in the KMT, as well as the degree of infighting within the KMT itself.
These documents are truly shocking and terrifying. In essence, they show just how bad these politicians are, how dishonest they are and how their actions are very different from the image they have long held up to the public.
The majority of the cables center around the American Institute in Taiwan, focusing on the US’ view of the action, or inaction, of Taiwanese politicians and how it has affected US interests in Taiwan and other parts of Asia. The issues the cables deal with and the people they mention provide us with a degree of insight into the US and how it goes about upholding its interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The cables’ description of the debate over whether Ma still holds a green card also shows how the US has a strong weapon when it comes to controlling Taiwan’s leaders, internal affairs, diplomacy, arms sales and China policy.
For more than three years now, popular opinion in Taiwan of politicians like Ma has been that they are dishonest, ineffectual figures who say one thing and do another, that they lack the capacity to either forgive others or understand the needs of the public and that they are incompetent at implementing policy as well as ineffectual in disaster response. The leaked documents also show how the likes of Ma deny the ability of their opponents and distrust them. All these only prove how true public opinion of the Ma administration is.
There are certain things that unite politicians like Ma. They suffer from selective hearing, listening exclusively to opinions that reinforce their own. They are selective, too, in their choice of facts and figures, employing them judiciously to gloss over the contradictions that exist in their lies. Furthermore, they only adopt the extreme views of a small minority, are blind to international developments and ignore mainstream public opinion.
In doing so, the Ma administration has set Taiwan on an abnormal course of development. In terms of economics, this means putting the interest of big business before that of ordinary people. In terms of sovereignty, this means China takes precedence over Taiwan. The Ma administration has also turned a blind eye to human rights abuses and insists on focusing exclusively on the short term when it comes to governance.
The cables exposed by WikiLeaks show politics for what it truly is. They are an opportunity for members of the public to know who is and who is not working in their best interests, something that will inform how they vote in the next election and whether they want to see another change of government in this country.
Chan Chang-chuan is a professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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