Category: Taiwanese Politics

No Phallic Imagery There

Taiwanese President-elect with Chiang Kai-shek statue in background.  Image from the Taipei Times.

KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou giving speech while standing at crotch-level in front of giant statue of dictator Chiang Kai-shek.

Will Ma Ying-jeou remember his own words next time he criticizes a Japanese official for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine?

Ma said he was not very concerned about any controversy over his visit to the tombs [of Taiwan’s former dictators], adding that “everyone can hold different views on history.”

[…]

“Your views may be different from mine, but you cannot coerce me into adhering to your opinions,” said Ma, adding that the public should welcome differences of opinion.

UPDATE (Apr 8/08):  Yesterday’s Taiwan News has more on the Yasukuni angle.

UPDATE (Apr 9/08):  My favorite caption:  "Doctor Evil and Mini-Ma."

i-1

Methinks He Doth Protest Too Much

Yesterday’s China Post headline:  [KMT President-elect] Ma proclaims love for Taiwan

And the story in today’s papers?  Ma Ying-jeou asks the Taiwanese Postal Service to delay releasing a set of stamps featuring his portrait alongside the word, "Taiwan."

Hey, give the guy a break, everybody.  It should be obvious Ma LOVES Taiwan …  He just doesn’t want to be caught dead having his picture on ANY stamp which bears the stinkin’ name!

UPDATE (Apr 4/08):  Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had that reaction.  From today’s Taipei Times:

A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday criticized president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) after he expressed reservations over the use of the word “Taiwan” on postage stamps, and accused him of discarding the name “Taiwan” like “toilet paper” after using it to win the March 22 election.

[…]

The DPP legislators said Ma had expressed no such reservations when he used the slogan “Taiwan marches forward” in his election campaign.

We Condemn Chinese Repression In Tibet – Just Don’t Ask Us To Put It In WRITING

From Wednesday’s Taipei Times:

Asked to comment, Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), acting secretary-general of the KMT caucus, said that the DPP’s draft resolution [on China’s crackdown on Tibet] was too harsh.

"The KMT supports the DPP’s position, which is that violence and violations of human rights should be condemned…," Hsieh said.

So you AGREE Chinese brutality in Tibet should be condemned?  Surely then, we’ll hear about that in the KMT’s resolution, won’t we?

The KMT’s draft, meanwhile, states that: "The human rights of Tibetans should be defended. The Chinese government should respect the value of human rights and ensure that human rights are protected in Tibet."

Nope, not a word there from the brave, the brave, Sir Robin!

All You Need To Start An Insane Asylum Is A Committee Room…And A 75% Parliamentary Majority

From the Saturday edition of Taiwan’s China Post:

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that he supports reopening the [partisan kangaroo court investigation that would "prove" President Chen Shui-bian’s election in 2004 was invalid, because he "faked" an assassination attempt upon his life in order to win sympathy votes.  The pieces fit together PERFECTLY – really, they do!]

Bet the Taiwanese electorate will be positively thrilled to watch the KMT hard at work, fulfilling all those sincere campaign pledges to FOCUS LIKE A LASERBEAM on the economy.

Taiwan’s President-Elect: “I Was A Grade-School Martinet”

No, no – that’s not a scoop from hostile newspapers. That’s the glowing message from SYMPATHETIC media organs:

Seventeen of [Ma Ying-jeou’s] classmates at the former affiliated elementary school of the provincial Taipei Girls’ Normal School were present at the morning [class reunion] party, where they reminisced about Ma, the discipline enforcer of the class.

"He was a strict disciplinarian," one classmate pointed out.

[…]

All his classmates present at the [recent class reunion] addressed Ma as "Our Classmate the President," though he continued to serve as their discipline enforcer.

Ma called the roll. Everyone had to answer "Here." Then he led everyone in singing the school anthem. He never hesitated to point an accusing finger at anyone who didn’t open his mouth wide enough to sing.

When the former classmates jostled against each other to get an autograph, Ma the disciplinarian ordered them to line up for a group picture first. "Picture first, then the autograph," Ma commanded. Everybody obeyed.

Don’t think I’ve ever heard the words, "strict disciplinarian," used as a compliment before.  There’s something a bit repulsive about rosily portraying the officious behavior of a bossy 6 year-old.

At any rate, that’s the narrative Ma’s idolizers in the Fourth Estate are trying to create, as this recounting of an earlier encounter shows:

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou brought his supporters into line in front of his home in Taipei [on the morning of March 25th].

"I will count [to] five," Ma told the hundreds of people who gathered to wait for his return home from a morning jogging.

"Then, line up in queue," ordered the president-elect like a drill sergeant giving orders to his recruits in boot camp.

They obeyed.  They had to, because they wanted to shake his hands, pose with him for a picture, or get autographs.

Ma obliged.

Former elementary school classmates and star-struck supporters are one thing.  It remains to be seen whether Taiwan’s 81 Tyrants will be quite so servile towards the former Strongman-in-Short-Pants.

Ma Ying-jeou’s Double Standard

Remember how the KMT threatened to sic John Law after Theresa Shaheen when it looked like she might deliver some unwelcome news about the validity of Ma Ying-jeou’s old American green card?

Theresa Shaheen, former chairwoman of the American Institute in Taiwan, is being given a…warning against getting involved in the "green card" issue over Kuomintang presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou.

"We wish Ms. Shaheen to know that it’s unlawful for an foreign national to get involved in an election in Taiwan," a top aide to Ma said yesterday. According to the Election Law, no foreign nationals may electioneer for a candidate in Taiwan.

Well, I was just throwing out old newspapers around here, when I happened to run across this:

Meanwhile, Ma’s campaign team invited a US immigration lawyer to support the candidate’s claim that it was not necessary to complete an I-407 form to give up one’s green card.

Query:  I wonder if Ma’s aides issued similar threats to the U.S. immigration lawyer whom they invited to speak on their candidate’s behalf?  I mean, you can’t graduate with an S.J.D. in Law from Harvard like Ma did, and not believe in the sacred principle of equality before the law, can you?

Can you?

POSTSCRIPT:  My initial post on the subject can be found here.

UPDATE (Mar 31/08):  Therese Shaheen denies the KMT story that she was ever willing to wade into the green card controversy:

In her statement, in English and Chinese, Shaheen said she was "never involved in any matters" regarding the green card issue during the presidential campaign.

"Fantastic rumors about my alleged involvement, my plans to make public statements about it, and the allegation that I was doing so because I favored one party over the other were 100 percent false," she said.

 

A-Groveling We Will Go

Taipei City Hall prepares a delegation for a big Beijing pow-wow kowtow for a couple of pandas.  No word yet as to whether Taipei will offer sanctuary to members of that other rare Chinese species, the endangered saffron-robed Tibetan monk.

The Foreigner wants to know: couldn’t these "One China"-obsessed pols at least have had the decency to wait until AFTER the blood had dried in the streets of Shangri-La?

UPDATE:  Taipei’s High Court dismisses the City Zoo’s bid to import panda bears from China.  For now.

Georgie Ann Geyer Gets It Wrong

Used to be a really big fan, so it’s sad to see she’s fallen under the spell of Taiwan’s saviour, its sainted Ma-ssiah:

His name is Ma Ying-jeou, and he is almost too good to be true.  Fifty-seven years old, he is a handsome man of vigor and intelligence who as a child mastered Chinese classics and calligraphy, who holds a doctorate of juridical science from Harvard University (1981), and who is the head of Chiang’s old Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party.

Well, it IS almost too good to be true that Ma was elected president – too good to be true for China, that is.  Especially after "little elder brother" labored so mightily to block the special arms bill for weapons that were intended for the defense of Taiwan from Beijing’s predations.  How obediently Ma danced to China’s tune, blocking that bill around sixty times over a two year period!

Asked about the fate of Taiwan’s companies in China in the case of a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan, he answered sagely, "Actually, if more Taiwan companies are investing in coastal China, I doubt very much the Chinese could attack — their missiles would be threatening their own companies."

Somewhere in that sagely response, Ma obviously forgot to mention that outright confiscation of private property is something that would never, ever, EVER occur to leaders of China’s COMMUNIST party.  Why, it’s just INCONCEIVABLE that the acolytes of Lenin or Mao would do such a thing to equipment and capital belonging to citizens of an ENEMY COUNTRY.  During WARTIME.

Maybe Ma’s right – if you can’t trust Marxists to play by Marquis of Queensbury rules, who CAN you trust?

KMT Does A 180 On Taiwanese Price Controls

If I remember correctly, the KMT spent much of last fall hammering the Chen administration for not doing more to rein in high fuel and food prices.  Later, during February of this year, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou promised SUBSIDIZED fuel for Taiwanese fishermen. And it was just March 10th – eleven days before the presidential election – that KMT lawmakers DEMANDED that Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs maintain price controls on gas and utilities:

"We want [Minister of Economic Affairs] Steve Chen to declare he will continue the price freezes until after April 1," one concerned Kuomintang lawmaker said.  [emphasis added]

Other legislators joined in calling on Steve Chen to keep the freeze in place until after a new president is sworn in.

Ah, how the worm turns.  By March 25th, all those price freezes suddenly didn’t look so attractive to the KMT anymore. Because if those prices are unfrozen later, as they eventually must be, their newly-elected man Ma will take the heat.  Much better that those prices go up NOW, so lame-duck Chen Shui-bian can shoulder all the blame:

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday defended the Cabinet’s decision to maintain a freeze on the prices of water, electricity, liquefied petroleum gas and fuel oil until the new government is inaugurated on May 20.

Chang denounced criticism from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators at a legislative question-and-answer session that the Cabinet had made the decision in order to leave an "awful mess" for the KMT following the handover.

"I cannot accept being accused of leaving an `awful mess’ behind. Amid soaring commodity prices, the difficulties that people face in making a living is the most serious problem the government needs to deal with," Chang said when approached for comment outside the legislature.

What we can see clearly here is that within a scant 14 days, the KMT went from being the enthusiastic advocate of price controls to the laissez-faire party of free-floating prices.  First they demagogued the cost of living issue, frightening the Chen administration into implementing price caps.  Then they bragged about how efficient former KMT dictator Chiang Ching-kuo’s price controls were back in the economic glory days of the seventies.  And just a few days prior to the presidential that they insisted the government maintain price freezes – only to demand the opposite three days AFTER the election.

How fortunate for Taiwan that the KMT’s opposition to price controls is so well grounded in principles, rather than low political expediency!