People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has expressed dissatisfaction over how President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in the speech he made at official celebrations of the Republic of China (ROC) centennial, did not say a word about former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who between them were in power for three-quarters of a century.
According to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mindset, this is a case of failing to honor one’s forebears. The two Chiangs had their good and bad sides and made both contributions and mistakes. Whatever one may think about them, it was totally unreasonable for Ma to leave them out of his ROC centennial speech.
If the centennial is such an important affair, then speeches and statements marking it should be solemn and meticulously written. A president’s speech should befit his office. It should not dodge the important issues and dwell on the trivial. By choosing to tell the story his way, Ma distorted historical reality and alienated his audience.
Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) is honored as the founder of the ROC, but he did not lead the Wuchang Uprising that led to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty. He could not have led it, because he was in Denver, Colorado, at the time and only found out about the revolutionary outbreak when he read about it in a US newspaper.
And so, when Ma talked about “the Wuchang Uprising, guided and set in motion by our founding father Dr Sun Yat-sen,” he was presenting false evidence.
There was no direct cause-and-effect relationship between China’s war of resistance against Japan and Japan’s renunciation of its claim to sovereignty over Taiwan at the end of World War II. As such, there was no legal “retrocession of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic” following the war, as the president claimed in his speech.
Taiwan has only had a democratic system for 20 years or so. Democracy and freedom did not come to Taiwan with the end of Japan’s colonial rule, but Ma tried to fool people by giving a different impression in his speech.
Ma, who came to Taiwan when he was one year old, declared that “the Republic of China is our nation, and Taiwan is our home,” but what is “our” and who are “we” in Ma’s mind? If Taiwan isn’t “their” nation, then where is “their” nation? Where are the citizens of Ma’s ROC?
The official English version of Ma’s speech is a truer reflection of his worldview. When talking about “the people of Taiwan,” the English version uses the pronoun “they.”
The implication is that Ma does not think of himself as one of the people he is talking about.
In his speech, Ma referred to the concept of “one China.” Clinging to the ROC Constitution, Ma insists that “one China” is the ROC, but he is dreaming. He would like “the mainland” to “face up to the existence of the ROC.”
Former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) were more realistic. While “facing up” to their own country, they also “faced up” to the existence of the People’s Republic of China.
Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) says that sovereignty rests with the people, whose country is Taiwan, which is officially called the Republic of China. Her worldview contrasts sharply with that of Ma, for whom sovereignty is China’s and Taiwan is just a “home.”
It is plain to see which of the two really cares about Taiwan.
James Wang is a commentator based in Taipei.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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