KMT soils elections, society
Whenever elections come around, I just want to curl up in a ball and block out the waves of filth and lies I know will come washing past.
The most startling aspect of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, its pernicious legacy, is the way it has transformed Taiwanese society. It has warped people’s moral compass and sense of values, creating a society preoccupied with personal gain, where people shamelessly flout the law, cheat and lie; where many think nothing of poisoning others and where public officials and big business are in bed together; with government, from the local level all the way to the center, rotten with collusion between politicians and finance groups. Supposedly upstanding members of society form cabals with denizens of the criminal world as ubiquitous as cockroaches, impossible to eradicate. You stamp one out just for another to come up from the drain, until in the end, you find yourself getting used to their presence, blind to them even as they scurry about your feet, forgetting that you should do everything you can to exterminate anything that is dirty, foul, unhygienic.
Elections are not about selecting a sage to guide us. Even if there were such a person, it is by no means certain that they would make the best politicians. Elections are about selecting good, able individuals who will be suited to office. Good means that they are more selfless than others — that they have served others rather than been preoccupied with benefiting themselves and their own. Able means that they have the ability to govern, that they have a vision and know how to make it happen.
Elections are also like choosing a suitable person to marry your son or daughter. The choice is not simply about the boy or girl: You also have to think about their parents, for after the marriage your two families will be forever tied.
It is important, then, to also look at which party the candidate belongs to and what their own family background is.
The vote is the one chance we have to make society a better place, to make a safe future for our children and our children’s children.
It is up to us to bring things back from the brink. We have to believe that we can make a difference, and make things right again.
Lee Juo-ying
Greater Tainan
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