Earlier this week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) once again demonstrated its lack of tolerance for different opinions, disrespect for freedom of speech and propensity to force its ideologies upon others.
At a time when the legislature, thanks to the KMT’s filibuster, was struggling to pass important draft bills, the KMT caucus proposed a motion to cut this year’s budget for the National Conscription Agency by NT$8.22 million (US$259,937).
It would have been comforting to the public if the caucus’ rationale for the proposed cut was to conserve taxpayers’ hard-earned money and maximize use of the nation’s limited resources.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. The caucus’ sole purpose was to punish the agency — and in doing so, set an example for others — for failing to discipline former Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) over his refusal to bow to a portrait of Republic of China (ROC) founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) at a ceremony at Taichung’s Chenggong Ling (成功嶺) training camp in May last year.
Chen’s reason for what the KMT deemed as noncompliant behavior was reasonable and justifiable: A democratic nation should not compel its people to worship any individual or ideology.
Chen said at the time that the military of a democratic nation should pledge its allegiance to the “spirit of constitutional democracy rather than a so-called ‘founding father.’”
He also called for the removal of all rituals and vestiges of the KMT’s authoritarian rule.
Chen is not the only recent victim of the KMT’s force-fed ideology. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been put under the microscope whenever she is required to sing the ROC’s national anthem, which was adopted from the KMT anthem.
The KMT has always been keen to examine whether Tsai skips a few sensitive parts — as she did before being elected president — especially the first line: “Three Principles of the People, our party’s aim shall be” (三民主義,吾黨所宗).
Some may argue that Tsai is obligated to sing the anthem in its entirety and bow to Sun’s portrait, as her official title is the “President of the Republic of China” (ROC), despite the growing number of people who identify themselves only as “Taiwanese” and do not share the strong bond to China that many of the older generations might have.
It is true that changes to the nation’s system will not come soon or easily, unless an overwhelming majority of the public decides to get rid of the long-standing self-deceptive idea that the ROC remains a government with legitimate claims over all of China.
That being said, since the existence of the ROC remains a subject of dispute, different opinions should be respected rather than chastised.
The same goes for the removal of lingering symbols of the KMT’s authoritarian era. For some, former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) might have played a decisive role in the nation’s economic growth, but in the minds of many Taiwanese, nothing can whitewash the atrocities that he committed.
The KMT needs to awaken to the reality that Taiwan is now a democratic nation where fundamental freedoms are safeguarded. No one should be allowed to force their own ideologies upon others, especially through political power.
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