Seventy years after the end of the Chinese Civil War, Taiwan’s development has been hindered by two “improper” aspects of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule: Improperly obtained political power and improperly obtained party assets.
The brazen nature and shamelessness of the KMT has been evident from the very beginning. The party has cheated, stolen, bribed, pressured and blocked opposition and change. No matter how unjust or unfair the situation, the party continues to preserve these two improper aspects of its power at any cost.
Through its occupation of Taiwan, the imposition of martial law, lifelong presidency and the “10,000-year legislature” that was elected in China and remained in place until 1992, the KMT used suppression to maintain its improperly obtained power and caused such horrors as the 228 Incident, the White Terror era and the Kaohsiung Incident.
When Taiwanese demanded the lifting of martial law and a return to democracy, the KMT used its improperly obtained power to suppress and obstruct the public’s demands. In the end, the party was unable to continue block the demands and martial law was lifted.
The party’s improperly obtained assets were subsequently used as life support to buy votes. The public demanded that the party return its ill-gotten gains and one of its former leaders promised party assets would “return to zero.” However, following the defeat of the KMT in last month’s elections, when the newly formed legislature submitted a bill to deal with the issue of the party’s assets, KMT lawmakers accused other legislators of “playing politics.” In doing so, the KMT again revealed its habit of obstructing reform whenever possible.
The malign nature of the KMT is also apparent in the way it is attempting to thwart a proposed legislation for the transition of presidential power. It has contradicted itself by initially saying the bill was “urgent,” then later saying it was not. The reason for this change is because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has the temerity to spend public money on a series of foreign visits and intends to saunter around the globe right up until the handover of the presidency on May 20.
How many cases has Ma been implicated in during his time in office where he has been granted immunity from prosecution as president? He should be thanking his lucky stars that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has not followed the example of the KMT and warned the American Institute in Taiwan that it cannot grant Ma political asylum, nor has it instructed the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to restrict Ma from leaving Taiwan following the handover of the presidency.
The public has voted to spurn the KMT for its habit of obstructing reform in order to hold on to political power. Despite this, Ma has the cheek to run around the globe on a jolly. If this was not enough, his party’s legislators, like the eponymous character in Chinese author Lu Xun’s (魯迅) novella, The True Story of Ah Q, even criticized the DPP, declaring that the electorate “does not like” the DPP. The KMT is clearly cracking up, having lost its power.
This kind of narcissism exists throughout the party and can be found as high up as Ma and as low down as the party’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans’ branch: It is clearly a collective psychological condition shared by the entire party.
What remains unclear though, is for how long it can continue to wallow in the mistaken belief that it was once loved by the public. Nothing could be further from the truth.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Edward Jones
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