Two opposing images of politicians, from drastically different backgrounds, have been repeatedly juxtaposed in my mind lately. One is former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) obsequious smile as he greets Chinese officials after landing in China. The other is Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova’s reassuring posture as she speaks in front of Taiwanese lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan.
Ma’s trip to China coincided with Adamova’s visit to Taiwan, as well as the ending of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Honduras.
As Beijing aggressively isolates Taipei from the international stage using “dollar diplomacy,” there are allies who come to the aid of Taiwan, as well as politicians, such as Ma, who acquiesce to this new reality.
The differences between these responses can be ascribed to their understanding of their own national identities within their respective historical narrative.
At the risk of sounding trite, the romanticization and promotion of Sinocentrism has contributed to the longevity of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) influence in Taiwanese politics.
Through the assiduous efforts of former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) Taiwanization, the process of shedding the colonial influences of KMT rule began, but is not yet finished. This is most evident in Lee’s failure to transform the KMT into a truly “local” political party.
The question of Taiwanese national identity remains pertinent in light of the upcoming presidential election. The pan-blue faction will reassert itself through the denunciation of politicians who promote a Taiwanese national identity by portraying them as radical and irresponsible.
Hopefully this backward current is ephemeral in the grand scheme of history.
On the other hand, the majority of Czechs share a strong sense of defiance against authoritarianism and a commitment to self-determination. During the Prague Spring, the Soviets sent half a million troops to occupy the country.
Following the invasion, Czech student Jan Palach immolated himself in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to protest the suppression of free speech. Czechoslovakia would remain in the control of the Soviets until the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Eight days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, students and protesters filled the streets of Prague, in what was the start of the Velvet Revolution. After failing to suppress the increasing number of street protests, the communist government would resign, ending 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia.
The Velvet Revolution is celebrated as one of the most successful acts of peaceful resistance in the 20th century.
The nation-state is an imagined community, socially constructed by the elite and the masses. Nevertheless, this imagined community allows people to anchor themselves in turbulent waves of history and arms them with a clear vision of the future.
The recent geopolitical developments surrounding Taiwan’s place in the international community bring to mind the writings of the Czech poet and former dissident, former Czech president Vaclav Havel.
In The Power of the Powerless, Havel wrote: “For the real question is whether the brighter future is really always so distant. What if, on the contrary, it has been here for a long time already, and only our own blindness and weakness has prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it?”
Linus Chiou studies physics and history at the University of Virginia.
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