Unless there is a major surprise, next year’s presidential election will be fought between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), more than likely a faceoff between DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and KMT Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱). These two women, one Taiwanese and one Chinese, are to run for the presidency, one representing the country’s reconstruction, and one representing the colonial system.
Tsai is not a typical DPP member. She has an academic background and a lot of political experience, having held various positions during the leadership of former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
In 2008 when the DPP was routed, the party moved into its third generation of leadership, following the Kaohsiung Incident — also known as the Formosa or Meilitao Incident — generation and the next generation of defense lawyers. In 2012, Tsai lost her bid in the presidential election because voters were uneasy about the possibility of a threat from China.
However, she has made a major comeback and is determined to win.
Hung is KMT through and through. She started out teaching and working as a high-school director of student affairs and sees herself as belonging to the KMT, even though the party victimized her father during the White Terror era. She has been a legislator. Hung has opposed democracy and spared no effort to consolidate the party state, remaining hostile to political reform by engaging in heated debates in the legislative chamber. For Hung, this election is to help the KMT regain power and pursue its Chinese colonial ambition.
Tsai is friendly with the US. Her visit to the US this month established her bid for president on an international and diplomatic level. Time magazine wrote a special report on Tsai with her picture on the front cover. Tsai’s attitude toward China has remained calm and steady, and she has not crossed any controversial boundaries.
Wedged between two superpowers, the US and China, Taiwan is in urgent need of a robust commander to lead the nation. Tsai has been regarded as a remarkable candidate for the job.
Hung is pro-China. Her version of the “one China, same interpretation” rhetoric is more extreme than the KMT’s. Hung has made statements that even President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would dare not say and said things that would make KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) go pale.
Hung is not hypocritically pretending to love Taiwan like Ma was in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Rather, she is overtly trying to form connections with China. By openly consorting with China and opposing the US, Hung is implying her male counterparts in the KMT are too spineless to admit their true pro-China intentions.
Hung should pay a visit to China instead of the US. She would see the “new China” aiming missiles at Taiwan, and how the country that put an end to the Republic of China (ROC) in 1949 views the ROC today.
She should take the KMT flag to China to see whether Chinese recognize the KMT’s outdated, fictional interpretation of China that has survived in Taiwan under the name of the ROC.
Do not allow history to repeat in Taiwan by allowing yet another colonial power to take over.
Do not elect another Ma and allow the ROC to be run into the ground. Taiwan needs to see an end to this cycle.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Zane Kheir
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