The recall wave is showing diametric opposites: Recalls against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers were launched by civic groups and the majority of them are organized by young people outside a party apparatus. That starkly contrasts with the “activists” in the KMT attempting to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers; the recall organizers are KMT members, most of whom belong to the party’s Youth League. The KMT ought to think clearly about this: Why is it that bonafide civic groups are more than willing to bear the burden of running these campaigns and show moral courage? Why does the KMT need to rely on younger members to halt recalls against it or to run counter-recall campaigns against the DPP?
Why did civic groups stand up in the first place? With KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) leading a group of 16 KMT-affiliated legislators on a trip to Beijing in February last year to meet with high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧), the KMT is beyond absurd. Former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) had the foresight to say Fu is like a parasite.
Why do KMT Youth League members need to launch recall campaigns against the DPP? That is because they have to bear the party’s will. Some of them might be laying the groundwork for a run for public office, and that is their first test to prove themselves. Yet their party is in decline and the public can see through their tricks. One young person identifying with the KMT even flirted with the specter of Nazism and received international condemnation.
Civic groups have set up stalls to gather signatures, exercising their public civic rights every step of the way, and the results speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, the KMT’s and its affiliates’ opposition to the recalls resemble retribution. Their forging of signatures and use of deceased party members’ IDs, as well as the astonishing degree of voter dissatisfaction, have led to accusations of doctored documents and contravention of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Civic groups are standing up, sweeping away outdated notions of young Taiwanese’s indifference to politics. The youth are a new social force and their participation shows that younger members of the public are shouldering responsibility as the nation’s new main actors. To a certain extent, that is changing Taiwan’s political direction. It not only severely impacts the KMT, but also serves as a warning for the DPP.
The KMT Youth League allegedly submitted recall signature documents that contained signatures of deceased voters and are being prosecuted in accordance with the law, yet they have countered by criticizing the judiciary, saying that the courts are only targeting the KMT. The party’s legislators facing recalls have even hurled abuse at President William Lai (賴清德). Do they realize he has nothing to do with the recalls? Why are they calling him a dictator?
Who else has headed Taiwan as a dictator apart from former leaders Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國)? Are there still any social conditions that would allow for the re-emergence of a dictatorship? The KMT has morphed from a party that detests the CCP into one that panders to it. If the recalls fail, the KMT would feel emboldened to attempt overturning our nation’s executive branch and stifle further recalls against their party. It is seeking chaos by calling for the toppling of the Cabinet and for the president to resign.
Someone ought to tap their heads and see if anyone is home. They are simply shameless.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Tim Smith
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