Are Taiwanese blind followers of their leader?

Ma Ying-Jeou certainly hopes that is the case when it comes to the proposed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which he wants the Taiwanese people to accept without questioning. [Must-read link!] I think the Taiwanese people who voted for Ma as president did so because of their willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt on his ability to govern the country. However, these people are running out of patience after a recent incident involving cartoon characters which were designed to promote the ECFA but which ended up insulting the Taiwanese instead.

Other than the above linked questioning, I also found a brief report by Peace Forum, 兩岸三通直航與台灣經濟 (translation: Cross-Strait Three Links, Direct Flights, and Taiwan's Economy), citing the results of an opinion poll drawn from a pan-blue dominated samples that should alarm the Ma administration.

And since Ma said in his recent interview with the Common Wealth Magazine (天下雜誌) that "我們不能忽視民意。其實民主政治不也就是這樣？" ("We cannot ignore public opinions. As a matter of fact, isn’t that what democracy is all about?"), I would like to quote this excerpt from the Peace Forum report:

[...] 四、兩岸三通之進程，取決於談判型式的共識，而非單純經濟考量

三通談判型式與過程的政治含意已遠高於經濟的影響，明顯地，台灣政府若不接受「一個中國」原則，那麼在中國的思考裡，台灣政府幾乎可以被確定會被排除在談判的框架之外。中國明顯的意圖是，將台灣政府的功能邊緣化，而台灣政府是台灣人民以民主的方式選出，台灣政府邊緣化，台灣民主也將不具實質意義。以台灣民主弱化作為代價，來換取禍福未定的經濟利益，是否值得？

不同於單對企業民調，台灣智庫曾於2006年1月8日發表了一份有關國人對兩岸經貿關係的民意調查。其中，在兩岸關係上，對於中國要求兩岸協商以「一中原則」為前提，有65.2％受訪者不贊成政府接受中國的條件，贊成者為只有21.9％。

在這份民調取樣上，顯示47.3％有大專程度以上學歷，同時政黨認同上也出現國民黨(27.6％)、民進黨(11.1％)、親民黨(1.3％)、台聯(1.3％)的分配(其餘為無特殊政黨偏好)，在取樣偏藍的情形下，「一中原則」為前提，仍被台灣大多數民眾否決，再次顯示，國內「三通」爭議源於階級利益差距，而非政治立場差異。

According to this opinion poll conducted by Taiwan Thinktank and published on January 8, 2006, even KMT supporters had doubts about Taiwan’s economic strategy if it were negotiated under the “one China principle.”

Before learning the ugly details about the characters being portrayed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), my original title to this post was:

A question for Taiwan’s pan-blues: Do you prefer the advice of comic clowns to that of economic experts?

The clowns to whom I'm referring are the MOEA's two cartoon characters, Mr. EC and Ms. FA, discussed in this article. (Don’t miss my comment there.)

I originally thought the two characters, Mr. EC and Ms. FA were merely two “cheerleaders” (which I preferred to call clowns at that time) created to promote the KMT government's plan to sign an ECFA with China.

But the next day, more news broke out about the two cartoon characters: A male character named Yi-ge (一哥) and his female counterpart Fa Sao (發嫂). (click link for image)

The comics portray Yi-ge as a 45-year old Hoklo-speaking man from Tainan City who works as a salesman in an unspecified traditional industry. According to his profile, Yi-ge is a vocational school graduate who speaks “Taiwanese Mandarin” and knows very little about the proposed ECFA. He is content being a follower in all things, but when it comes to protecting himself, he “goes all-out.”

“For example, if he were ever accidentally short-changed by a clerk at a breakfast restaurant, he would do almost anything to get the money back, even if it is just NT$5,” the description says, adding that he was the kind of person who talks tough but never takes action.

His profile also says that he lacks the sensitivity for danger, lives life in a carefree manner and never cares to improve himself because he has a steady job. He has had some conversations with his colleagues about the ECFA and even though he knows nothing about the subject, he is worried about losing his job once the pact is signed.

One of Yi-ge’s acquaintances is Fa Sao, a 40-year-old Hakka from Hsinchu who works as a supervisor at an import-export company. She is described as an active, self-motivated and highly capable married woman who is fluent in English, Mandarin, Hoklo and Japanese. She is always hungry for knowledge and eager to learn more about money-management. Her profile suggests she keeps herself well-informed and is a keen observer of market trends. Fa Sao was recently promoted to company spokesman. Her knowledge of cross-strait trade has prompted her to learn all about the ECFA.

As it turns out, the comic strip was extremely offensive and derogatory. It described those who opposed the ECFA as stupid and unaware of current events, and it stereotyped people from the southern part of Taiwan (like myself) as “lower class.”

The Taiwan News published an editorial, KMT comics for ECFA insult Taiwan people, which points out that:

The most questionable claims and rationalizations cited by the Ma government to promote the pact are presented as incontestable facts despite intensive criticism by numerous independent economists […]

For example, the MOEA comic claims the implementation of the free trade agreement between the PRC and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next January will render Taiwan exports to China uncompetitive compared to ASEAN products, implies "Made in Taiwan" goods will face "5 percent to 10 percent" tariff levies across the board and that Taiwan bosses will move factories to the PRC to "stay competitive."

In fact, most of Taiwan's exports to the PRC, especially in leading informatics and telecommunications sectors, face zero or very low tariffs, while the main product areas that will be affected are petrochemicals, which will have an edge on ASEAN makers due to lower transportation costs. Besides failing to consider that economic competitiveness can be obtained by other paths besides lower tariffs […]

Since I am a “lower class” southerner who “accidentally” speaks multiple languages and feels deeply insulted by the comic strip, I think it would be a good idea to examine Ma’s allegiance from a different angle, not from his US permanent residence / citizenship status mystery, but from how he named his children.

Ma’s real thoughts on Taiwan’s future role are revealed by how he named his two daughters: Lesley Ma (Ma Wei-chung, 馬唯中) and Kelly Ma (Ma Yuan-chung, 馬元中). This information is readily available from the Wikipedia article on Ma under the section about his Personal background.

For the benefit of English-only readers, the character 唯 means ONE AND ONLY, and the character 元 means THE FIRST as in 元首 (the first of a nation i.e., the head of a state), or THE BEGINNING as in 元旦 (the beginning of a year, i.e., New Year’s Day), or A UNIT IN COUNTING MONEY as in 一元 (one Yuan). The third character of both of their names is 中, which means CHINA, or CENTER (but obviously Ma meant China in this context). By the way, China 中國 literally means the "central nation" or "middle kingdom." The ancient Chinese people must have thought that their country was at the center of civilization, whereas the ancient Greeks must have thought Delphi was at the center of the universe.

Ma did not name his second daughter after the character 台, which would refer to TAIWAN. He named both of his daughters after the character 中 (China) to show his one hundred percent loyalty to China.

Everything in Taiwan is changing swiftly but silently, just like the renaming of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall back to the dead dictator’s name. Are Taiwanese blind followers of their leader? If not, don’t wait until you wake up one day that your leader announces his title has been changed to a regional governor.

Refuse Ma’s push to sign the ECFA, and support only a clearly studied and proposed future economic plan for Taiwan through many forums to be organized by experts in the field.

Related reading:
In Chinese:
Taiwan Echo’s ECFA 漫畫說帖：一個撕裂社會、製造族群對立的文宣

Taiwan Echo, again, on the fake apology from Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (但是這次，就讓我爽爽快快地幹個徹底吧！)

In English:
The View from Taiwan’s ECFA/China Investment Round Up, More on the ECFA’s Cartoons: Guest Post, and MOEA Exploits Ethnic Stereotypes to sell ECFA

The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato’s How to insult a people

Time Magazine’s Taiwan: How to Reboot the Dragon

An article in the Taipei Times mentions how MOEA minister Yiin Chii-ming's "apology" places the blame on others

Discrimination Is The Single Seed of Conflict

Michael over The View from Taiwan wrote in his recent article Taiwan the Toddler, describing that some of the international media treat Taiwan as a kid who can't make a right decision.

In essence, "being treated like a kid" is the same as "being treated like a secondary citizen." It bares the characteristics of master's domination over slaves: you deserve only the life of a slave; you are incapable of making the right decision; every important decision you make will have to be approved by your master.

If you ever try to imagine the mindsets behind all those irrational behaviors of pan-blue in recent years, you would have found the exact same pattern of thinking. President Chen came from the local Taiwanese grass-root movement but not from the elite level of pro-China class, so whatever he did must be wrong, whatever he said must be nut. In pan-blue's eyes it's really not what Chen said or did went wrong. To them what's wrong is the fact "Chen being the president". After all, how can a "slave class" Taiwanese possibly have the right and ability to lead the more superior "master class" pro-china elites?

And if you trace this discriminating mindset even further, you would have found that Chinese started discriminating Taiwanese before KMT escaped to Taiwan in 1947. The study on this "discrimination" could stack a truck load. Deep down, "discriminating against Taiwanese" is the real single seed of conflict for all the current turmoil in Taiwan.

The road of democracy in Taiwan is therefore not only a road of anti-authoritarian, but a road of anti-discrimination and anti-colonization as well. The only final solution to reach a real peaceful Taiwanese society is to eradicate the discriminating mindset of "Chinese is superior than Taiwanese".

Sadly enough, this "discrimination against Taiwanese" is rarely mentioned in current Taiwan political theater. Not only pan-blues refuse to admit it, but also pan-greens are not aware of it. Only when both sides are brave enough to recognize it and admit it, can there be a chance that this discrimination mindset be eradicated and the seed of hatred be eliminated.

Foreign media obviously share this "colonizer superiority over Taiwanese" with pan bluers just that it's on an international level.

Update (9/19/07):

In response to mashhood's request in his comment, I quickly compiled a list to show where my theory in this post came from. This by no means is a complete version. I believe readers can spot more with open eyes.

1) First of all before KMT took over Taiwan from Japanese hand, KMT government in China already decided that they wanted to "keep the structure of colonizational government in Taiwan and use that as the tool to rule Taiwanese." Therefore there was that "Taiwan 長官公署" after KMT arrived. To my knowledge, never in China history was such a government organization setup in China territory. It is a symbol of colonist and indicates that KMT has decided to "treat Taiwanese as colonized" even before they came.

Ref: 李筱峰『台灣史100件大事（下）』p. 6~7
但是新來的中國政府卻以「征服者」的態度對待台灣。首先，國民政府在台灣設立了一個和中國大陸各省不一樣的制度，叫做「台灣省行政長官公署」，作為統治台灣的總機關。這個機關擁有行政、立法、司法、軍事各項大權，齊集一體，很像日本時代總都府的翻版，延續了類似日本時代的殖民體制。

2) When Chinese started to come to Taiwan, they described Taiwanese using the term "奴化" (slaverized?) and have to be "re-educated".

Ref: 李筱峰『解讀二二八』 p.99~100
許多大陸人視台灣人受了日本的「奴化」，動輒以「奴化」加諸於台灣人。。。。教育處長范壽康於1949年4月29日，在台灣省地方行政幹部訓練團的演講中，公開指責台省人排擠外省工作人員是「完全奴化」，引起省參議員郭國基的強烈質詢，認為這是對台灣同胞的侮辱。這種視台灣人受日本「奴化」的觀念，直到二二八事件，官方仍以此為理由來解釋事件的肇因。

3) The looting of resources by KMT back to China before KMT lost China. It ruined the Taiwan society and directly led to 228 killings. This looting was based on a mindset that Taiwanese don't deserve a good living, which, from my point of view, is the only explanation for how could they possibly justify their stealing/robbing/killing acts.

Ref: The looting of Taiwan resources and sending them back to China should be available easily.

4) After KMT occupied Taiwan, Taiwanese were almost excluded from the government's middle and high positions. It's another sign that Chinese don't treat Taiwanese equally.

Ref: 李筱峰『解讀二二八』 p.36~39

5) During the martial law period, whenever Taiwanese characters appeared in TV programs, they were portrayed as low class, dirty, no education, criminal ... KMT intentionally infused the impression of "Taiwanese are low class people" into people's minds.

6) The voting trends of pan-blue supporters -- no matter how good a Taiwanese politicians is, he/she has no right to lead us.

7) The unreasonable hatred against President Chen. As what I mentioned in the post, it's not what ah-bian did or say, but "being a Taiwanese" itself is what they opposed.

8) Many pan-blue supporters, even highly educated, still believe that if not for KMT Taiwan will not be able to enjoy such a developed and democratic society now. They totally ignored or denied the fact that before KMT came, Taiwan was already a much more advanced civil society than China, and Taiwanese then were far more experienced than Chinese in terms of running a country democratically. This "Taiwan would have been worse without Chinese coming" mentality is a deeply rooted discrimination against Taiwanese.