Anyone who cares about Taiwan might be anxious and discomforted by its political situation over the past few years. Take for example the Sunflower movement’s unprecedented forceful occupation of the Legislative Yuan and a splinter group breaking into the Executive Yuan last month.
These moves certainly do not constitute a coup or a revolution, but such recourse to forceful action was supported by a large number of Taiwanese because they believed it to be legitimate. This shows that the nation has hit a wall because so many of the political issues plaguing it are proving intractable.
Unheard and ignored, the nation’s youth had no choice but to resort to forceful measures and were prepared to pay the price for their actions. Unlike previous activists who restrained themselves, the younger generation jumped over the wall of the Legislative Yuan compound in what was a giant leap for Taiwan’s democratic development.
This shows that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) rule is collapsing and that the new generation is prepared to go to greater lengths to voice its discontent. In doing so, these young activists have sown the seeds of an unpredictable turbulence in the country.
Recently, I have been recalling a scene that took place more than four years ago when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) told me through a friend surnamed Yang (楊) that “Taiwan has been in the shadows for too long and the emergence of a bright sun is necessary.”
Later, Lee and I had a talk over dinner at my house for seven-and-a-half hours. I remember him being greatly concerned about the nation, especially considering Ma’s lack of leadership. A few years later, the student movement broke out. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but perhaps Lee foresaw this development.
Taiwan is ill — and its ailments seem serious. The nation’s cross-strait policy is leading straight to a dead end, since Taiwanese are never going to accept Beijing’s policy of “one country, two systems,” but neither the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “one China, with each side making its own interpretation” nor the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “one country on each side” provide a solution.
It has become conventional in this country for the president to serve concurrently as the chairperson of the ruling party, which causes problems for the distribution of power and the smooth operation of constitutional government.
Housing and land justice have also been degraded by the long-term collusion between the government and business interests, and the situation will likely worsen. The issue of food safety has threatened national security, but such problems are easily forgotten and no comprehensive strategy to solve the food problem is in place.
As for the nuclear energy issue, it is an issue of more than whether the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) should be halted — the government has no comprehensive plan for the decommissioning of the nation’s three operational nuclear power plants, nor for energy resource development.
After the Sunflower movement protest came to an end, former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) launched a hunger strike to force the government to scrap plans for the plant in a move at once touching and disconcerting.
Will the nation’s poor suffer even more as free-trade policies continue to favor the rich? As Chinese interests become more prevalent in Taiwan, many people are worried that the nation may become the next Hong Kong and even the government’s push for voluntary army recruitment is plagued with problems.
The conflict between the pan-blue and pan-green camps has meant that the political parties are currently embroiled in a race to the bottom. Politicians do not care about national affairs, they only care about attending weddings and funerals to attract votes.
Under such circumstances, people no longer place their hopes in another power transfer, while the government is hitting the wall wherever it turns. To resolve this litany of problems, some politicians from the two camps have come up with a solution: “alternation of generations.” However, can the new generation of any party come up with a new strategy? Unfortunately, these new generation of party members’ only strength is their age and this makes people feel that certain politicians are still carrying out private power struggles amid the chaos.
How can the nation keep progressing when its president, premier and party chairpeople all lack leadership and only act in accordance with the law? They will never be able to build a great country like this.
Hopefully, someone will stand out that can build a great country, so we should gather those who have vision to discuss Taiwan’s grand plan for the 21st century — a “Taiwanese dream” — to find a way out.
If we are led by our ideals, maybe we can stop hitting the wall, while the blue and green camps, as well as the older and younger generations, can fight for the nation together based on shared beliefs in freedom, equality and brotherly love.
Confrontations without ideals are nothing but meaningless power struggles.
Shih Ming-te is chairman of the Shih Ming-te Foundation and a former Democratic Progressive Party chairman. He resigned from the DPP in November 2000.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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