A sociologist has warned that ethnic issues should not become a tool of manipulation for power struggles.
Coming on the heels of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) repeated questioning of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) national loyalty at campaign rallies, Michael Chang (張茂桂), a renown sociologist, said Chen's attacking Ma's national identity basically appeals to "ethnic identity" for political purposes.
This is also in contradiction to Chen's call for ethnic unity during his 1994 mayoral campaign, Chang said.
Speaking at Taipei mayoral campaign rallies, Chen criticized Ma for being born in Hong Kong and for following Hong Kong's precedent of succumbing to China.
He also accused Ma of campaigning as the chief of the Taipei Special Administrative Region of China, not for the mayor of Taiwan's capital -- Taipei City.
"Although the president denied that his remarks had anything to do with ethnic issues, his criticism is apparently invoking an ethnic split among the people in Taiwan," said Chang, who specializes in Taiwan's ethnic issues.
Chen has devoted himself to the ruling DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan's (
During the campaign rallies, Chen criticized Ma's patriotism, accusing him of not briefing the Presidential Office after an official visit to Hong Kong.
"Mayor Ma prefers to meet the chief of Hong Kongs' Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China rather than report to the president of the Republic of China," Chen said.
When Chen bid for his first Taipei mayoral election in 1994 his top rival, New Party candidate Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), called on his supporters to "defend the ROC and to save the country from deadly crisis" so as to provoke an ethnic stand-off between native Taiwanese and those mainlanders who moved from China to Taiwan with the KMT in 1949.
Chen instead proposed a campaign slogan, calling for the "establishment of a happy and hopeful new Taipei," and won the election, Chang said.
"But this year's mayoral election is different from that of 1994. Ma is campaigning with ease; however, Chen is heading back to the old tune of tough ethnic debate," Chang said.
Responding to Chen's accusation, opposition leaders, especially those who competed with Chen in the 2000 presidential election, attacked the president and his administration with emotional words, saying he is "crazy" and "senile."
Most political observers believe that the mayoral election campaign has become a trial for the 2004 presidential campaign but Chang is worried about the negative development packaged by those ambitious politicians who are stirring up ethnic conflict.
"Politicians are using ethnic conflicts to serve their own benefits. The opposition PFP Chairman James Soong (
He also said ethnic issues have always been an essential part of Taiwan's political development. Ever since former president Chiang Ching-kuo, (
However, behind the euphemisms of "ethnic equity, mutual respect and forgiveness," there is power struggle, noted Chang.
After former president Lee Teng-hui (
"Lee's purpose was to make the KMT more localized and to move the party into the middle line," he said.
"The then opposition DPP, meanwhile, also brought up the idea of four major ethnic groups and tried to make peace with the mainlanders who came to Taiwan in 1949," Chang said.
"In the middle of the 1990s, the then DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) started to push reconciliation among political parties. Although it was criticized by the party's pro-independence extremists, Shih's proposal did pave the way for President Chen to bring up his idea of the `new middle way' [a concept that comes from British Sociologist Anthony Giddens] and eventually lead to the change of the party," Chang said.
"The KMT and DPP were pushing ethnic unity for their own benefit, but the results were good for society," Chang said.
He said "ethnic unity" has become a consensus among the people in Taiwan who have an increasing antipathy toward those politicians who use ethnic issues to serve their own political purposes, though it seems that Taiwan's politicians are not aware of it but are still trying to manipulate the ethnic issues in their election campaigns.
Chang noted there are two negative factors for Taiwan in pushing ethnic unity: the first is there are too many elections in Taiwan and candidates always like to manipulate ethnic issues as part of their campaign strategy; the other is the media's lack of self examination of ethnic-related reports that provide a stage for ethnic extremists.
He called on people to play the role of censor and to reject politicians who use ethnicity for their own political gain.
He also gave a warning to the politicians: "Stop using the old tactics to provoke ethnic stand-offs and never underestimate people's resentment to this kind of political manipulation."
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