When Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) raised Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) hand and gave her his full support, saying three times — without stopping to examine his own behavior — that it was his “unshirkable duty” to do so, he set his place in history — as a useless politician.
When Hung used a cane to discipline students, got involved in physical fights in the legislative chamber and was caught on video shouting at people in public, she also bought herself a place in history — as a politician who prefers to use violence to ger her point across.
When a useless politician meets a violent one, it is analgous to a timid junior-high school student meeting a violent school dean: The student bows his head to authority, admits his faults and obediently writes vows promising to work harder on the blackboard.
Some people might say that it is not wise to underestimate Wang, who has a reputation as a wily and versatile politician.
This brings to mind Mao Zedong (毛澤東), who once swallowed insult and shouted: “Long live Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek” (蔣介石) — but in the end, it was Chiang who had to retreat and take “temporary refuge” in Taiwan.
However, such an analogy might be giving too much credit to Wang.
Wang describes himself as a member of the pan-blue camp, but a true Taiwanese at heart. If that were true, then that would be an insult to Taiwanese.
Taiwanese might not be as quick to take action as the violent Hung, but neither are they cowardly like former minister of health Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), who, having failed to obtain the KMT’s endorsement, did not even dare pick up an application form to enter the party’s presidential primary.
There is no place for a Taiwanese mentality in the KMT, because it has yet to win the trust of older pro-unification members.
In the same way, the KMT’s mentality and secretive politics have yet to win the trust of Taiwan-centric, grassroots-oriented politicians.
The recent so-called “primary election mechanism” might be a more transparent form of selection that could force the KMT to reform, but Wang either chose — or was forced to — give up a shot at the nomination.
If Wang was forced to give up his presidential bid to protect the vested interests of his friends, because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had managed to get hold of some information that he could use against the legislative speaker, he should just have kept his mouth shut and suffered in silence.
After all, he has been a foot soldier all his life, so why suddenly put on a show now?
However, if it was only Ma and his deep-blue allies that were sidelining Wang, then he should have stood up and fought, put his trust in the opinion polls and let the public decide.
That he did not dare take this approach and that he was dissatisfied with the situation only serves to highlight his incompetence.
The disgraced Wang is hanging on to his last strand of dignity as he refuses to fall into line under Ma’s whip.
However, after saying that he was duty-bound and would accept the party’s nomination if he were drafted by the party, only to see Ma’s own favorite, Hung, being anointed, while he was drafted to come out and call for unity behind Hung — even repeating three times that it is his unshirkable duty to do so, one wonders if the party’s pro-Taiwanese faction would ever dare look voters in the eye again.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Zane Kheir
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