While digging through old boxes for spring cleaning this year, I came across a long-expired Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) membership card. Forcefully recalling old memories, I was overcome by mixed emotions.
Throughout high school, I had refused to bend to the will of my military training instructor by joining the KMT. However, when I was admitted to the police academy after graduating, I had no choice but to join the party. Out of my cohort of 120, there was only one student who refused; throughout our second year, he was constantly being pulled aside by the captain and other instructors for talks. While dispatched as a trainee officer, I was even tasked with investigating his reasons for refusal.
After graduating in 1987, we were both assigned to what was then Taipei County’s police department, myself to Sijhih (汐止) and my colleague to Rueifang (瑞芳). At the time, there was a substantial number of demonstrations, and police from across branches were often called to urban centers as backup. When we crossed paths on such occasions, I learned that his relegation to Ruiefang, a relatively remote district, was due to loyalty concerns.
In 1989, I was transferred to Banciao (板橋), where my work frequently dealt with election-related activities. Over several years, I was repeatedly assigned to monitor “blacklisted” people returning from overseas before and after election rallies. Among the names were Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) activists and politicians such as Chen Wan-chen (陳婉真), George Chang (張燦鍙) and Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
In November of the same year, former DPP legislator You Ching (尤清) ran for Taipei county commissioner for the first time. When, on the day of the vote, results were not announced until late into the night, his supporters gathered at the KMT’s Taipei County party headquarters to protest. Upwards of 10 fire engines were stationed near the Banciao police station, waiting for the call to abandon defenses and move against the protesters. I had already been sent to help set up barricades around the KMT headquarters, which we manned long into the night until news of You’s victory finally broke.
In those days, police officers had their KMT membership fees deducted directly from their salary and were often required to transfer their household registration to within the precinct or otherwise register their address at the branch office to pad votes in those electoral districts. One chief of police once invited the precinct chiefs for a meal and openly declared his support for a KMT candidate. They later passed on the order to us officers during joint training sessions. Their nerve was astounding. So much for “political neutrality.”
In the aftermath of the 319 (or March 19) shooting incident, an attack on then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during the eve of his re-election in 2004, members of our office’s criminal unit were crowded around the television. When one of them cursed the DPP for staging a “fake shooting,” I could not help but reply, “what fake shooting? If the KMT can’t accept defeat, they shouldn’t have run!” The section chief immediately called me into his office, telling me: “Just take the win and don’t say too much, or your colleagues might turn against you.”
Once, perhaps, this blue membership card symbolized a belief in and concern for the future of the country. Since then, Taiwan has seen three changes of ruling party, through which the DPP has always supported Taiwan, and the police, regardless of political affiliation, have defended the nation and its central government. Why is it that the KMT is never on the side of the righteous? Today, it seems to me, the card is not even worth keeping.
Chen Hsueh-chiang is a police squad leader.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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