Former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) used to push for reforms to protect Taiwan by adopting the “three noes” policy as well as “Taiwanization.” Later, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) wished to save the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by pushing for the party’s “localization,” hoping to compete with homegrown political parties as a pro-Taiwan KMT.
However, the present-day members of the KMT do not know what they are talking about, and do not heed the two former presidents’ words, so the party has suffered a third consecutive defeat in the January presidential election.
Soon after gaining power with the help of the KMT’s pro-local faction, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) turned to China to echo Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “Sinicization” of Taiwan. Some KMT legislators such as Fu Kun-chi
(?) have even turned localization into a family business. Instead of following Lee’s political line, Fu puts profit before everything else, and bows down to China’s terms and conditions in exchange for its favors.
Also, some local KMT politicians have expanded and are interfering in foreign affairs, while more radical KMT politicians in Taipei and New Taipei City often act like political commentators on talk shows, trying to uncover scandals, and trying to attract KMT supporters with vulgar language.
In the past, the KMT relied on its Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military chapter, the Yan (顏) family in Taichung, the Chang (張) family in Yunlin and Fu Kun-chi’s family in Hualien to secure its turf in northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan respectively. It recently reorganized the Huang Fu-hsing military chapter to help solve the party leadership’s financial difficulties.
Since the three political families have money and votes, they have suddenly become major pillars of the party’s survival. Under such circumstances, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) cannot control the three families, and this is likely to limit the party’s development.
On the other side of the political aisle, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) incoming Cabinet highlights the party’s de-academicization and de-partisanship, as many of the appointed Cabinet members are independent professionals with practical experience, which also shows the party’s ambition to expand its appeal. The DPP has not forgotten that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was recruited as an independent professional.
Academics often fill key government posts in democratic countries because of their expertise. However, one downside is they could also be more idealistic and less pragmatic.
President-elect William Lai (賴清德) has named several entrepreneurs as part of his Cabinet. They have practical backgrounds, understand Taiwan’s business situation and international trends and their achievements in business are obvious to all — not to mention they are more “down to earth.”
Such a Cabinet requires an open mindset to attract a wide range of talents that would be willing to join. After the KMT’s long rule over the half-century, some Taiwanese are still skeptical about joining the DPP’s team out of fear of KMT retaliation.
However, outstanding business talents in the private sector are now willing to join the DPP team, which is a major psychological breakthrough.
While the KMT is entangled in Sinicization, self-limiting its appeal, the DPP is going for eclecticism, pragmatism and the inclusion of “non-partisans,” as it continues to expand and to Taiwanize.
The Taiwanization of Chiang and Lee has been abandoned by the KMT and embraced by the DPP.
James Wang is a senior journalist.
ranslated by Eddy Chang
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
A recent report concerning a student who is suing his teacher posed the question in its headline: Does failing a student in two subjects constitute bullying? The college student in Chiayi County apparently sought NT$2 million (US$63,603) in state compensation, but a court dismissed the case. The first reaction of many might have been to ask: What has happened to students nowadays? Some say that teachers have lost their authority, while others say students are overindulged. Some even start reminiscing over the days when “whatever the teacher says goes.” However, the real issue might be overlooked if emotional reactions like that are the
RSS