Saturday is the day of the first batch of recall votes primarily targeting lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The scale of the recall drive far outstrips the expectations from when the idea was mooted in January by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
The mass recall effort is reminiscent of the Sunflower movement protests against the then-KMT government’s non-transparent attempts to push through a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014. That movement, initiated by students, civic groups and non-governmental organizations, included student-led protesters occupying the main legislative chamber for three weeks.
The two movements are linked in several ways:
First, they are perhaps the most momentous events in Taiwanese politics in their decades, and yet despite being inspired by the misconduct of politicians, were initiated by non-political actors and ordinary Taiwanese alarmed by actions in the legislature.
Second, the impetus in both was the actions of lawmakers from essentially one party: the KMT.
Third, the mass recall movement is only possible due to the conclusions drawn by the Sunflower movement. The protests and the occupation at the legislature led to a push to lower recall thresholds. Ironically, the efforts were championed by the New Power Party (NPP) following the 2016 legislative elections, spearheaded by then-NPP chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌). Huang is now chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which has been playing second fiddle to the KMT since the two parties achieved a combined legislative majority. Unsurprisingly, Huang’s support for recalls as a mechanism for removing problematic lawmakers has dropped.
Fourth, interest in the unprecedented, politically fascinating and significant nature of the two movements has been glossed over by international media.
It is confusing that foreign media have not shown more interest in the recalls, given the captivating historic arc and the relevance for the immediate future of a nation that plays an important geopolitical role.
The dramatis personae include the DPP, which started in the dissident dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) movement in the authoritarian KMT party-state era, but became the dominant governing party in the past quarter-century; and the KMT, which guaranteed its grasp on power through the courts, education system and martial law, and has fallen from grace and power since its authoritarian heyday.
Only one of its presidents — Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — in the democratic era has held office for two terms. Ma sailed into power on the back of a massive corruption scandal involving the first non-KMT president, the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Ma’s pro-China stance, backing eventual unification, elicited suspicion among the electorate, leading to the Sunflower movement, which helped push the KMT from power.
Another cast member is Huang, transformed from a central figure in the Sunflower movement to a poster boy for the Stockholm-syndromed KMT appendage that the TPP has become.
Finally, there is the central role played by ordinary Taiwanese.
Among the sparse stories of the recall movement published in foreign media are reports that miss salient facts that justify the groundswell of grassroots dissatisfaction leading to the efforts, as was the case in the run-up to the events of 11 years ago. Some reported objectively, but others printed KMT talking points, such as “malicious recall,” the need to “oppose the green communists and fight against dictatorship” or the need to “keep channels of communication open” with China “to reduce tensions.”
Even with the quotation marks, and regardless of whether the points were reasonable or objectively true, the partial reporting and lack of context are unfortunate.
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