What does Taiwan mean to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)? The answer is "booty." They take it as their own, regarding it as part of their party-state.
Unlike his predecessor Lien Chan (
However, the nature of a foreign regime is exactly the nature of the KMT's party-state. Unless Ma follows Lee's line, his discourse will only worsen the situation and further highlight the party's unchangeable, non-native nature.
Take for example its major campaign slogans: The phrases "Connecting Taiwan" and "Restoring Taiwan" to the latest slogan of "Winning Back Taiwan," which is being used for the Dec. 3 elections, are completely a product of the party-state ideology.
What does winning back Taiwan mean, anyway? It means taking the nation as its property, its booty, or even its party asset. This is an ideology derived from the ancient family-state ideology, and is a major component of the establishment of a feudal dynasty.
Let me tell you a story to support my claim about Ma and the KMT's ideology.
After Liu Bang (
What is different between Ma's attitude of winning back the regime and that of Liu's? He looks at Taiwan as the KMT's lost property that he has to regain. Regardless of what he thinks, Taiwan belongs to its 23 million people.
Political parties come and go, and the nation will never become an individual's or a party's property. Nor will its democratization go back to the old path and follow the KMT only.
Ma's party-state ideology is the same as Liu's family-state ideology. Interestingly, although he holds a law degree from Harvard University, he is trapped in an ideology that is the same as Liu's, and is unable to step into a modern democratic society.
In the late 19th century, French scholar and politician Francois Guizot clarified French political thinking of the 8th century, saying that the public was unclear about the concepts of sovereignty, authority and rights at that time. They did not distinguish the right to use or the right of ownership from that of political dominion.
The ownership of Taiwan belongs to the whole, to all of the Taiwanese people. So at most, Ma is merely able to win back rule of the nation.
The slogan of winning back Taiwan is a result of mistaking rule for ownership and clearly reflects the party-state attitude.
From "Connecting Taiwan" and "Restoring Taiwan" to "Winning Back Taiwan," Ma thinks of the nation as a piece of meat. So the so-called winning back of Taiwan is an attempt to snatch the meat back, and nothing more.
Chin Heng-wei is the editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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