DPP and KMT Trade Stupidities

The Taipei Times ran an editorial today ripping President Chen for once again screwing up, this time with respect to respect for the dead. Last week Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou traded barbs over Ma's totally fake love for Taiwan, with Chen ripping Ma publicly:

"If Taiwan were truly Ma's homeland as he claims, then why doesn't the word `Taiwan' appear on his father's urn? Instead, the inscription only mentions building a greater China," Chen said.

Chen said the inscription on Ma Ho-ling's (馬鶴凌) urn said: "Replace independence with gradual unification, strengthen China and work towards unification."

Ma Ying-jeou's camp immediately struck back, calling Chen "malevolent and disrespectful" for using a deceased individual as a political hatchet.

"What Chen did today was completely against the principles of benevolence, honesty and forgiveness that are so deeply rooted in the Taiwanese spirit," said Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Ma Ying-jeou's running mate.

Note that the KMT assigns the riposte to Siew, who is a Taiwanese. This permits the Great Man (Ma) to maintain dignity by being above the fray, while his underlings strike back on his behalf -- the same dynamic at work in Hu Jin-tao's peace offersurrender demand, where the Great Man spoke of peace while his underlings threatened war (and again yesterday from the head of China's Taiwan affairs office). It's a bad idea in Taiwan to insult a man's ancestors, and disrespecting the dead, especially the recently dead, is taboo. And Ma Ho-ling, whom no one would ever accuse of playing with a full deck (but who died old and in the arms of his mistress, more power to him), does not make a worthy target for nationalistic vitriol, in any case.

I knew that when Chen was made Chairman of the DPP stupid stuff like this would happen. Luckily for my sore fingers the Taipei Times responded appropriately today:

Today, we are beginning to see this self-destructive behavior re-emerge just in time for the legislative and presidential elections thanks to an ill-advised broadside against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), based on the words of Ma's late father engraved on his urn allegedly supporting China's unification.

This is specious and repulsive politicking on Chen's part. Worryingly for the DPP, Chen seems unaware that attacks on politicians for the perceived sins of their parents can backfire badly.

It is bizarre that Chen would adopt a strategy based on indecent assumptions of family accountability when Ma's track record -- the things Ma has done for which he is solely responsible -- is fodder enough for political purposes.

Chen rightfully took responsibility for the single most damaging event to his government: the failure to capture the legislature in late 2004. He did so by resigning the party chairmanship -- a move that was highly appropriate considering that the loss was a strategic debacle. The DPP treated the poll like a presidential election, focusing on cross-strait sloganeering instead of local candidates and developing strategies for the then multiple-member districts.

Until Chen took over the Chairmanship, I thought Hsieh had a strong lead. *sigh* At least the referendum drive is going well, with more than 2 million signatures collected, far exceeding the 800,000 needed.

All this is at the national level. The presidential election will likely go well, win or lose, but the real key is the local level elections. Last time Chen was at the helm, the DPP blew elections they could have won. The DPP desperately needs a professional party chairman who has but one focus: putting DPP candidates into office. Hopefully none of this will stick to Hsieh.

The International Herald Tribune ran an AP article on Ma Ying-jeou's position: there is one China and it includes Taiwan.

The consensus, negotiated between Taiwanese and Chinese representatives in Hong Kong, holds to the idea of a single China -- including Taiwan -- but says the island and the mainland disagree on what it means.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Ma said he maintained his support for the consensus, which was agreed to one year after Taiwan's Nationalist government renounced a 40-year long determination to retake the mainland by force.

"The 1992 Consensus has always been my policy and I have never stopped saying so," Ma said.

Announcing that Ma thinks Taiwan is part of the China while running for President is pretty much what the DPP wants him to do. Moreover, the 1992 Consensus that Ma refers to was something that the KMT simply made up, as one of those present admitted a while back. Yesterday Ma praised Chiang Kai-shek and said he only made a few small mistakes, or suchlike (I don't have the exact quotes), only problems being the White Terror and 2-28. Another brilliant move. Ma is obviously an ideologue, but don't worry -- none of Ma's deeply Chinese thinking will ever make it into the foreign media. After all, he's charming, and he speaks good English, and he went to Harvard, and that is all Ye foreigners know on earth, and all ye need to know...

On the humorous side, the papers have been filled with the saga of the wife of DPP legislator Luo Wen-chia. He was DPP, she KMT. First she threatened to divorce him for running again this year, but has since calmed down, and now is only going off to the US to hide during the election campaigns. They are not a traditional political couple, Legisator Luo lamely explained.

UPDATE: A-gu agrees.

Well, what we don't know is who put this on the urn (dropped the ball on that one reporters). Frank Hsieh suggests Ma Ying-jeou himself may have written it, but offers this only as a hypothetical possibility. Ma Ying-jeou offers no hints.

But more importantly, who cares? I agree this is disrespectful. Attack Ma on his records. Replay his old quotations on this topic over and over. Don't talk about his father.

As I note in the comments below, when someone complained that I hadn't mentioned that the KMT had argued Chen had misquoted the urn, what's written on the urn itself is irrelevant (it's subject to interpretation). The problem is that Chen should have ignored the whole thing. Now Ma gets to parade around in public looking like the good Chinese son. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We don't need the urn to know that Ma is a pro-China Deep Blue ideologue masquerading as a "moderate."

[Taiwan] [Chen Shui-bian] [KMT] [DPP] [Ma Ying-jeou]