Anyone hoping for a major change in direction for the KMT under new chairman Ma Ying-Jeou will have been disappointed with Ma’s first few weeks, which have continued policies in line with his predecessor Lien Chan (the latest example, a failure to criticize this weeks legislative chaos – claiming it was normal ‘filibustering’ as happens in any democracy). However, it has become clear that Ma’s first priority is to consolidate his power in the KMT – which means deference to Lien, attempts to befriend PFP leader James Soong, and winning some measure of support from Wang Jin-pyng and the KMT legislators (who generally are much closer to Wang than Ma). In this climate, Ma is unlikely to do anything in the short-term that deviates too much from Lien’s policies (as this would be seen as implicit criticism of those policies).
One area that Ma can address though is in one of his strengths – publicity. Lien Chan had almost no charisma, and little understanding of the importance of good public relations, so there is plenty of room for improvement here. Ma has clearly identified the KMTs Achilles heel of being ‘more Chinese than Taiwanese’ (an issue that the DPP has successfully exploited over the last few years), and is doing his best to improve things:
Ma Ying-jeou, new leader of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang, has started a campaign to highlight the party’s historic links with the island and reconcile it with those who suffered under decades of repressive KMT rule.
The KMT party headquarters, widely seen as a symbol of its authoritarian past, yesterday became the scene of an unlikely memorial to two heroes of a local Taiwanese nationalist and democracy movement.
On Mr Ma’s orders, the KMT adorned the building with posters commemorating Chiang Wei-shui and Lee Yu-pang, who fought Japanese colonial rule of the island in the first four decades of the last century.
The campaign by Mr Ma – the popular Taipei mayor’s first such move since he won the KMT chairmanship in a landslide election – targets the party’s weak spot. Founded in China a century ago, the KMT established a one-party regime in Taiwan after fleeing to the island upon defeat by the communists in the civil war in 1945.
The KMT leader said Mr Chiang’s and Mr Lee’s early ties to Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the KMT, were proof of the party’s deep roots in Taiwan.
This is a smart move by Ma. Instead of letting the DPP lead the conversation into a simplistic ‘DPP=Taiwanese, KMT=Chinese’ argument, the KMT should be promoting themselves as a Taiwanese party who embrace their Chinese heritage. However, he’s skating close to some uncomfortable truths – apart from the tenuous links described above (there is no doubt that Chiang Wei-shui was a supporter of Sun Yat Sen, but there’s less evidence that the support was reciprocated), there’s another unpleasant fact:
He also apologised for persecution and repression under his party’s dictatorial former rule. Mr Lee was executed in 1952 for allegedly spying for communist China.
Just last month, while emphasising the historical links between the KMT and Taiwan, Ma praised Liao Chin-ping as a supporter of Sun Yat-sen … but he was killed in the KMTs darkest hour on Taiwan (the 2-28 massacre). As Oscar Wilde might have said: To kill one supporter may be regarded as a misfortune; to kill two looks like carelessness.
Ma’s initiative to promote the KMTs historical links to Taiwan is a positive one. However, he’ll have to accept that a lot of that history is not something that the KMT can be proud of.
” Lien Chan had almost no charisma, …”
“Almost”? A dog turd has more charisma than Lien.
The KMT (Kill More Taiwanese) Taiwan “we love you, really” plan, put forth by the party’s poster man-child, is frankly disgustingly disingenuous. The idea that the KMT wishes to ” highlight the party’s historic links” with Taiwan makes me wonder which links those might be: White terror? Suppression of the press? Gang influence? Land misuse and theft? Dictatorial rule? Cronyism? Human rights violations? Political gulags? The list is lengthy.
And what does Ma mean by links with “Taiwan”? Does he mean the Republic of China on Taiwan? Taiwan was a life raft for defeated civil warriors from a conflict on China.
Anyone who thinks Taiwan will be better off under the yoke of Communist China is hardly one to show off “links to Taiwan.”
“Ma’s initiative to promote the KMTs historical links to Taiwan is a positive one.”
Sure, if obfuscating the truth is the aim.
Nice post, I was just wondering who those two guys were yesterday.
The fact that the KMT has skeletons in its closet can be viewed as a positive when compared to the virtual non-history of the DPP. At least the KMT has made mistakes that it has learned from. The DPP is making its mistakes right now, but unfortunately it distract us from them by dredging up the KMT’s past mistakes as cover.
TOS, imagine if you were the head of a corporation interviewing two people for a management job. One guy is a young unknown; a bit wet behind the years but motivated to bring in some new ideas to the organization. The other is an older applicant, lots of experience, but with a criminal record of fraud and domestic violence. Which one would you pick, based on what you know? Can the older applicant’s long criminal record be taken as a (with apologies to Herr Rumsfeld) an experienced “known known”, therefore making him a worker you can count on? Or do you go with the “known unknown”, with the implicit understanding that mistakes will be made, and yet more importanly as you said, learned from?
So again, I ask you: who has the burden of proof here? Who has to work hard to prove themselves? The proven criminal, or the unproven greenhorn?
“The DPP is making its mistakes right now, but unfortunately it distract us from them by dredging up the KMT’s past mistakes as cover.”
Then how do you know the DPP is making mistakes if you are distracted from them? Or do you have some supernatural ability to see what others cannot?
What do you consider “mistakes” anyway? Sure, President Chen has been far too soft on elements wishing to bring down the duly elected government, but to compare White Terror of the KMT as a mistake equal to any errors during the Chen administration is simply naive.
The positive “links” that the KMT has to Taiwan were developed because of self-interest, not some “Taiwan nation-building.”
How Mayor Ma can justify what has been going on in the new legislature (get posting Mr. J-flop) as “filibustering” is scandalous, and I have been a taxpayer here for the last 20 years. If Chen and the DPP had a savvy media guru, they could turn the KMT antics into international and domestic ridicule (which they deserve).
So what links do the KMT wish to spotlight? People they DIDN’T suppress?
Remember one key fact, and one that explains the bizarre rabbit warren infrastructure here: The KMT never planned to stay in Taiwan long; there was serious expectations in the early days that the mainland would be retaken (with the help of the US). This may seem farfetched now, but back then it was most certainly not.
Wolf, the reason I say this is a positive step is that the KMT needs to talk more about its links to Taiwan. Whatever they were, they are a Taiwanese party now, and will remain a Taiwanese party whatever happens in the future – so the more they talk about Taiwan and the less they talk about being the rightful ruler of China (and various little islands off the coast of china) the better. Could you imagine Lien Chan praising a Taiwanese pro-democracy freedom fighter from the Japanese era?
Thankfully, they haven’t got the power nowadays to whitewash history – and in fact Ma did apologise for KMT rule in the article I linked to. Of course, it’s all just publicity and PR puff at the moment; the KMT desperately needs real reform to back up Ma’s PR campaign …