Tue, Jan 23, 2007 page8

• Veterans law a political football that divides us all

  • By Chang Mao-kuei 張茂桂
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  Recently the Chinese Nation-alist Party (KMT) proposed amendments to the Statute Governing the Reconstruction of Weathered Military Communities (國家老舊眷村改建條例) that would compensate veterans who had been promised housing support by the Ministry of Defense (MOD) but never received it. Once again, politicians and the media have distorted and dramatized what could have been a topic for rational discussion into a Taiwanese tornado of blue versus green, Mainlander versus localized Taiwanese.

  As with other public policies, this one involves social justice, the government's use of its political and financial resources and advantage versus marginalization. Of course there were possible issues with this amendment regarding the burden on the residents of the military communities, and the rights of the dispersed veteran families outside the communities. And it would be no surprise if the plan also involved the political and economic interests, as well as electoral considerations, of a minority of the legislators who raised the proposal.

  The legislature is a place where people advocating different interests and viewpoints can engage in transparent debate. But the current manipulation by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is an example of the worst kind of public political discussion. It has taken the complex questions over the costs, benefits and overall fairness of the project and dumbed them down into an unfair struggle for resources between the weak Taiwanese and the advantaged Mainlander minority. This is a perfect example of how politics can divide Taiwanese society.

  The DPP has always claimed it represents the progressiveness of Taiwan's diverse society and culture. Yet on the other hand, it encourages a minority of people to use the subject of Mainlander interests to twist Taiwan's political advancement.

  Veteran families both inside and outside the veteran communities have never been purely made up of Mainlanders. The great majority are of mixed ethnicity. Not only did the first generation intermarry, but also the second, third and so on.

  The Association of Mainlander Taiwanese is an organization which promotes the cultural preservation of veteran communities. We worry that after they are all torn down in 2009, one of Taiwan's most important cultural features will be lost overnight. That is why last year we pressed for a non-partisan amendment to incorporate cultural preservation into the statute, so that reconstruction efforts would also work to preserve cultural and architectural artifacts, and give counties and cities another opportunity to participate.

  This year we also want to earn a NT$10 million budget in the hope of preserving Taiwan's diverse culture, the aesthetic beauty of the communities and to create a community atmosphere in which coexistence is respected.

  Today, people working to preserve the culture of the veteran communities feel as if they've been unfairly drawn into a conflict which is not of their making. We sincerely call on the ruling and opposition parties, the MOD and all members of society to look more broadly at the facts.

  Stop using ethnic smears as an argument, and instead communicate by discussing the matters at hand. Acknowledge the diversity of the veteran communities. Seek to promote ordinary citizens and a spatial and cultural transformation by building communities. Create the possibility of a new form of diverse Taiwanese culture.

  Chang Mao-kuei is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica and president of the Association of Mainlander Taiwanese. Translated by Marc Langer
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