The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) near collapse in last month’s nine-in-one elections attracted many suggestions for reform.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who still nurtures hopes of controlling the nation, was unable to block public anger and had to step down from his post as party chairman, even though the party charter had been changed to say that a KMT president should also be the party’s chairman.
One can only speculate what kind of soup Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is acting chairman of the KMT, and Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) will cook up, but people should have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Some say that as long as the KMT does not rid itself of its illegal assets, elections will always be unfair. This of course makes eminent sense, but that does not mean the party will not lose elections. As long as voters wake up, like they did in time for Nov. 29, the KMT will fall no matter how far they push the unfairness.
“Unless the KMT falls, Taiwan will never do well” was a slogan used during the Sunflower movement and by young people since, and through this general awakening, they will use their votes to put an end to this evil party that thinks of nothing but how to rely on unfair competition to maintain its rule.
In the past, the KMT often talked about the “evil communists.” By “evil communists,” they of course meant the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Did it really never think that the KMT itself would one day be called “evil?” All it had to do was look at its own history, how it fled to Taiwan and how it let Taiwanese down.
The party’s assets came from exploitation and plundering, a result of the party-state spirit. Faced with democratic elections, the funds became a tool for manipulating voters. This is the reason people say that no one is the master of an election, all you need is the money to buy it. The party is self-righteous and never feels ashamed because of its colonial mindset. It would do anything and stop at nothing for the sake of power.
Such unfairness and injustice was what existed in the hearts and minds of the Republic of China’s (ROC) officials after the Chinese Civil War. It was an outrageous attitude, but it was the attitude of an elite in exile.
In 2000, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and the KMT lost the presidential election. KMT members with a Chinese colonial mindset hated former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and cut off the Taiwan-centered part of the KMT, thus digging the party’s grave by showing its true colors. Ma’s time in office seems to have been just a last spurt of activity before the final collapse. The KMT is not a Taiwanese political party, and that is where the whole problem lies.
The nation will finally start to focus on Taiwan itself. The country will finally be rebuilt with the determination and emotional attachment of the people living here.
If the specter of Chinese colonialism lingers within the KMT even after reform, the party will be abandoned.
How does “New Nationalist Party” sound? The party should let go of its Chinese baggage, aim for a “self-confessional” transitional justice, cooperate to let the ROC pass into history, return “China” to China and its illegal assets to the public. Building a new nation together is the kind of reform that is much needed.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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