KMT and ‘silent majority’
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has delivered an interesting interpretation of the term “silent majority.” When former US president Richard Nixon used the term “the great silent majority,” he was hoping the US middle class would support his faltering Vietnam War policy. Still, he was at least referring to the silence of people still living.
In the 19th century, Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle used the term, but had a different meaning, as the “silent majority” actually referred to dead people: the voiceless, indefensible people who have made up the majority of human history. They exist only on tombstones and in history as a silent but palpable presence.
When the KMT allegedly forges dead people’s signatures for recall petitions targeting elected officials of the Democratic Progressive Party, it has achieved something truly outstanding, quite literally awakening the “silent majority.” While other parties are trying to win the support of young people, the KMT is crossing the line between life and death to collect signatures from beyond the grave.
The living are hard to control, while the dead are fully compliant.
Rather than keeping in touch with public opinion, the KMT has sought support from those incapable of retracting their endorsement.
Politically, this is a genius move. It coheres with the KMT’s tradition of allowing a debate to be domineered by a nonexistent authority. It has proved that it understands the true meaning of the “silent majority” by putting the theory into practice.
When the dead can sign recall petitions and vote, how much weight do the living have in the recall campaigns?
Perhaps the KMT itself has long become part of the silent departed, but has neglected to inform the bereaved.
Lee Chih-yang
Taipei
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