The battle for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) chairmanship has become an extremely lively affair. Tears have been shed and insults have been hurled, opponents have ridiculed one another and bickered among themselves.
Five uninspiring candidates have merged into one amorphous blob, indistinguishable from one another, chanting the same vapid slogan of “unity.” Each believes that only they have the ability to unite their factionalized, foreign political party.
Of the five candidates, one trumpets the “one China, same interpretation” political formula of unification and has the support of the party’s Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch; another harks back to the “good old days” of the KMT party-state; one has “daddy’s boy” tattooed on his forehead; while another continually emphasizes his family connection to the veterans’ branch.
Former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢), who threw his hat into the ring at the end of last month, is selling himself as the “local” candidate and aims to return the party to power in 2020.
While the candidates openly call for “unity,” they have actually employed divisive tactics by press-ganging people to register as new party members at the 11th hour, inflating the number of signatures for their candidacies and making “adjustments” to party rules on voter eligibility. The candidates’ methods, philosophy and the overall electoral process are fundamentally lacking in any form of “unity.”
The unjust and unfair electoral process will only serve to further deepen existing splits within the party, while the candidates’ vague political philosophies will create even more entrenched positions within the party.
One candidate has openly called for “unification” with China, while another does not dare utter the word “unification,” but has found the courage to oppose “independence.” With such fundamental disagreements, what is there for party members to unite over?
The only motivation to come together is to get back into government.
Chan is a more promising politician than his colleague and backer, former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長). However, although Chan has said that he intends to win back power in 2020 — and that he is not prepared to play second fiddle to the Democratic Progressive Party — he appears to have forgotten that uniting the party and uniting the nation are two different ball games.
During the Martial Law era, when the legitimacy of the Republic of China was challenged by the international community, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), came up with the rather clunky political slogan: “Consolidate power and lead from the center.”
Their main goal at the time was to “oppose foreign aggression,” “oppose the Chinese Communist Party” and “oppose unification” with China. The docile Taiwanese went along with the idea as the lesser of two evils.
After tricking the KMT’s localist camp into voting for him, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) then proceeded to undo the party’s long-standing and clear-cut foreign policy position developed by the Chiangs of allying with the US and Japan and opposing China. Ma turned foreign policy on its head and pursued a traitorous anti-US, anti-Japan strategy, while attempting to surrender to China.
If Taiwan ever has the misfortune to be foisted with another KMT government, it will be lucky to escape being sold off and annexed by China. Taiwan desperately needs a new opposition party, but it cannot be in the guise of another KMT. The best thing for the KMT would be to disappear into the history books, or alternatively, to relocate back where it came from: China.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Edward Jones
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