Since Ma took office, however, caution has been thrown to the wind, with no assessment of the impact that technology transfer could have on Taiwanese competitiveness in crucial sectors of its economy, said Wu, who has also served as Mainland Affairs Council chairman under the DPP government.
Aside from Ma’s disregard for criticism from both the DPP and some members of the KMT, Wu said Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) public attitude toward Ma “seemed to have changed after Ma ran for the party chairmanship.”
“I figured that he must have seen the situation that Ma is trying to control the party and the LY [Legislative Yuan] party caucus and there is no way for him to publicly dispute with the administration now,” Wu said.
There were clear indications that the Ma administration was also proactively seeking to silence former officials from the Chen administration, including himself, Wu said.
Wu said earlier this year he was invited by Project 2049, a US-based think tank, to participate in a conference coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act on Capitol Hill.
He was quietly informed, however, that Taiwan’s representative in Washington repeatedly requested that the organizer of the conference have Wu “disinvited.”
Wu also said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which funded some academic projects, had requested the organizers to drop him from participating in another conference in Washington and other academic activities.
“A book project by a government-funded think tank was about to be completed and [I] was a contributor,” Wu said. “But the book project was ordered dropped.”
Faced with such censorship, Wu said he and other former DPP officials felt they had a hard time getting invited to conferences and events, lest their presence cause trouble in relations with the KMT and China.
“Lack of resources, corruption charges and an unfriendly media environment are preventing the DPP from being more effective in its efforts” to counter Ma’s cross-strait policies, Wu said.
Asked how the DPP could turn things around, Wu said: “Some people argue that the DPP should try to come up with its own platform on cross-strait policy or other policies. My view is that it is not time yet — any platform by the DPP now will probably look out of touch because of the fast pace of change. A better timing will be when the [DPP’s] presidential candidate [for the election in 2012] is selected and a platform, or grand policy proposal, is offered as a contrast to the KMT’s failures or its policies.”
“In short, we are counting on the final moment of a duet with the KMT and Ma when 2012 approaches,” Wu said.
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