Leninist Organization in Action

It is easy to look at the KMT and the cash and not look past that, but one of the most important components of KMT dominance over society is its Leninist drive to bring all the institutions of society under its own control. In Leninist forms of organization, Right or Left, the Party interpenetrates with society so that whether at home, on the job, or socializing, the Party is always in control, monitoring, and shaping the behavior of others. A friend of mine flipped me this email, which I have edited slightly to obscure identities, that shows how this process of establishing and operating local institutions works at the ground level.

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Subject: [TOSA] Taiwan ROC Youth Alliance of Pacific Northwest, USA

Dear TOSA members,

On Saturday May 22, 2010 at 2pm, there will be a ceremony for the establishment of a new organization called “Taiwan ROC Youth Alliance of Pacific Northwest, USA”.

The goal of this organization is to form a bridge between Taiwanese associations and students from college and community colleges in 6 vicinity states (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming).

So far, we have representatives from:
- TOSA @ UW
- TSA @UW
- TSA @SU
- TSA @ WSU
- Taiwanese Club @ EdmondsCC
- Taiwanese Club @ Greenriver CC.

This group is open to members from ages 16 to 40 but is mainly focused on serving students and young professionals.

If you would like to know more about this group or would like to gain some leadership experiences, you should definitely attend the ceremony this Saturday. As this group is still in the formation process, we will most likely be looking for students who are interested in taking some leadership roles.

Event Details:
- Date/Time: Saturday, May 22, 2010 @ 2pm
- Location: Cultural Center of TECO in Seattle
(1008-140th Ave NE, Suite 108 Bellevue, WA 98005)
- We will be accepting membership application to join the group.
Student members application fee $5
Non-student members application fee $10.
- There will be food and drinks prepared

If you have anymore questions, feel free to e-mail us at tosa@uw.edu

Hope to see you there!
TOSA TEAM 2009-2010

XXXX and I decided to check it out so we could try to understand what they are after. AAAA, a member of our group, is guessing this may also be used to pump up support for "ROC100". A TECO Cultural Center woman lead the beginning introduction, her student assistant lead the rest. During the welcome and introduction (all the meeting was in Mandarin) she told the ~200 students that this would be a non-political group. To me this raises red flags immediately, and I mentioned to BBBB that their interpretation of non-political likely meant to keep the student groups from supporting anything that ROC/KMT was against. One thing I noticed was the constant use of "中華民國" [Chunghwa minguo] throughout all the afternoon, and only using "Taiwan" when absolutely necessary.

They handed out the bylaws and a member registration which I have scanned and attached; reading these will really give you the insight of what they are doing here. Ms. TECO announced she would read the bylaws and if anyone had an issue with them, they should speak up, but if you agreed or didn't really know what it means, please clap (oh, please, let's just copy the CCP rubber stamp process here!) Some key red flags in the bylaws would be the mention of "Chinese culture", but sometimes in the same sentence with Taiwanese this or that; the ability for them to kick out a member for any reason; the inclusion of many political support requirements, read as patriotism to ROC and Chinese culture.

One of our members was the only one brave enough to stand up and ask several questions for different sections, particularly the part about what patriotic activities meant and to give an example. Ms. TECO was a bit hesitant to answer, but couldn't seem to dodge the question as well as Ma does. She explained that although you might have differing opinions on religion, as ROC citizens the students would be expected to stand up and support the ROC government as one voice, and would be expected when called upon to show up for ROC government functions; for example if President Ma comes to Seattle, they would be expected to show up and cheer for him to show their patriotism and love for country and the president. (BBBB turned to me at this time and whispered jokingly if that would apply for past presidents like Chen or Lee). Here is where our own AAAA was likely right about this being done now to get ready for ROC100.

To our surprise, despite many students not knowing each other because they were from different schools, they ran the election immediately after gathering the membership forms and money. We heard much grumbling from the students about the unfairness of this as it was influenced greatly by the number of students who were able to show up from any one school. Our feeling here was OCAC was simply giving a veneer of student control with student elected officers, but real control still resided in OCAC. It was obvious that the leaders for each of the school's groups were there because they were promised money backing for their activities, and that is how OCAC intends to keep them in line as well.

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....but the KMT can only dream of the Party as God, as Gady Epstein at Forbes writes about China today.
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