As the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) emerges, the KMT faces a dilemma over the question of whether it should expel its former chairman, Lee Teng-hui (
A country has its laws, a family its rules and a political party its discipline. Outsiders have no say whatsoever on how to deal with Lee, who has paid NT$10,000 for a lifetime party membership, since the matter is strictly the KMT's business.
Some of the party's traitors, however, who left the KMT to set up the New Party and the People First Party (PFP), have poked their noses into the matter by lashing out against Lee's behavior.
Remember former KMT vice chairman, Chiu Chuang-huan (
In the 1994 Taipei mayoral race, DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (
History repeated itself in last year's presidential election. Lien represented the KMT and Soong left that party to run as an independent. Chen once again won the election and Lien gained the fewest votes of the three.
How did Huang repay Lee's help and guidance? In a report on the "true meaning of nativization" (本土化真諦), Huang gave a stark analysis of the political situation. "Some people, by forming a new political party, abuse the emotional appeal of nativization and use it as an election apparatus ... Some politicians have manipulated the ideology of nativization, thus creating `anti-mainlander' and `de-Sinicization' undercurrents. But nativization is by no means exclusive or anti-Taiwan," he said. The "people" and "politicians" to whom Huang referred are none other than Lee.
Lien was an honest, humble gentleman before the 2000 presidential election. But after his defeat, he seems to have cast off his former self by complaining that, "The party's key policies were decided by a handful of people, or even one man, in the past. Sometimes the policies were divorced from reality and public opinion."
He also said that "No [KMT member] is above the party establishment ... The KMT must conduct self-examination, make a firm resolution for reform and rectification, and discard our so-called baggage."
Statistics have already answered the question of whether Lee strayed from reality and public opinion when he threw his full support behind Lien, also known as "box office poison," last year. Lee won 54 percent of the vote in the 1996 presidential election, but Lien's defeat ended KMT rule. So who exactly is the bur-den to the KMT?
Those in power must take heed. Loyal and extremely deferential people might strike a man when he is down; those like dogs wagging their tails pitifully might bite the hands that feed them. When Brutus stabbed Caesar, he did not forget to explain himself, "So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged his time of fearing death."
They lashed out against their former boss to show their loyalty to their new leaders. Isn't it just dreadful and pathetic that human nature is so twisted?
Chang Kuo-tsai is an associate professor at National Hsinchu Teachers College.
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