Page 2 of
2 Devils
and angels in Taiwan By Stephen
A Nelson
Strait. The arrival of the US
Seventh Fleet, coinciding with America's
involvement in the Korean War, sealed this fate:
Mao and the communists on one side of the strait,
Chiang and the KMT on the other side.
"Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT were lucky,"
said Keating. "Taiwan was not."
But given
the military conflict and the "Red Threat" from
Mao's China, was martial law needed to maintain
order? And was the White Terror [the KMT's reign
of spies, disappearances, imprisonments and
executions] a "necessary evil" to keep Taiwan
"safe"?
"Martial law probably helped the
government maintain control in
what would have been
pretty tense and troubling times," said Limburger.
"I can see how an alien power would have felt it
was necessary to impose martial law in order to
reduce the likelihood of domestic chaos as it
contemplated how to retake its homeland."
"I guess from that point of view, you
would call marital law a necessary evil,"
continued Limburger. "The White Terror, however,
that was just evil."
Profits or
plunder? But what about the claims that
Chiang not only kept Taiwan "free" but rebuilt the
economy after the losses of World War II? Did
Chiang prosper Taiwan or plunder it?
Keating believes the idea that Chiang
Kai-shek rebuilt Taiwan is a fabrication, a myth.
"Chiang Kai-shek did not rebuild Taiwan;" he said.
"In reality, he is the one who brought it to its
lowest degradation."
According to Keating,
in the final phases of China's civil war, "Taiwan
suffered tremendous destruction physically and
morally. Taiwan was stripped of machinery, factory
parts, materials, metals, foods, rice ... anything
and everything that could be used to bolster
Chiang's losing effort in China."
Keating
said that's when the real denuding, pillaging and
destruction of Taiwan took place. And when the KMT
retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and began rebuilding
what they had destroyed? "It was not because they
loved Taiwan," he said, "but because they had no
place left to go" and decided to "make a heaven of
their hell" that they had created.
So
three decades after Chiang's death, what are we to
make of the recent changes that "smote the name of
Chiang" from public places like Chiang Kai-Shek
International Airport and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial
Hall? Were these just election ploys by the
governing DPP?
"I don't think they were
renamed in order to consolidate pro-independence
support," said Limburger. "Deep green [pro-Taiwan,
pro-independence] voters would have voted for the
DPP candidate whether they got Chiang's head on a
plate or not. I think it was actually a matter of
principle. And the DPP were probably hoping that
reversing the changes wouldn't be high on Ma
Ying-jeou's priority list once he was elected."
But now, the pressure is on to restore the
old name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and
Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport. Since Ma
has promised to revisit the issue, will he do so?
Wait until he is president and then change the
name? Or push now for changes the old guard wants?
"I would be very disappointed to hear the
hall and airport were renamed," said Limburger.
"Firstly, I don't think Chiang Kai-shek and his
family deserve a public legacy. Secondly, I'd be
disappointed in Ma. I really want to believe that
he's actually a man of substance who will choose
the sensible course over the politically expedient
one every once in a while. If he caves on this
one, it doesn't bode well for his presidency as a
multitude of supporters and cronies push him to
rush into China with open arms."
The
future of democracy But if Ma does give in
- as many expect he will do as soon as he's sworn
in - and the old names and Chiang's monuments are
restored, what does all this say about Taiwan's
democracy?
One person worth asking is
Linda Gail Arrigo. Today she is a sociology
professor at Taipei Medical University and
spokesperson for Taiwan's Green Party. But three
decades ago, known by her Chinese name "Ai
Lin-Da", she was one of the most recognizable
foreigners in Taiwan.
During the
martial-law era, she was intimately involved in
Taiwan's forbidden democracy movement and took
part in the demonstrations that led to one of the
country's most infamous military crackdowns: the
1979 Kaohsiung Incident, also known outside Taiwan
as the Formosa Incident.
Arrigo's husband,
future DPP chairman Shih Ming-de, was singled out
as one of the ringleaders and sent to prison. For
her part in challenging the KMT, Arrigo avoided
prison but was deported to the United States. At
the time, Chiang Ching-kou was president.
For people like Arrigo, the sight of Ma
Ying-jeou kowtowing to the Chiangs is an ill omen.
"Even if the names [of the memorial and the
airport] aren't changed back, a chill 'Blue' wind
is blowing, just because Taiwanese automatically
buckle down to please the new authorities," said
Arrigo, implying that the whole country is bending
with the KMT wind.
"I think it is quite
possible that there will be actual backpedaling on
police issues and freedom of speech, but it will
probably be subtle," Arrigo told Asia Times
Online.
And what about Ma Ying-jeou
himself?
"Let's see how Ma faces the
frying pan," Arrigo said. "But I expect the matter
now is not really Ma as an individual, but the old
evil style of the KMT."
Stephen A
Nelson is a Canadian freelance journalist now
based in Toronto but with one foot still in
Taiwan. For eight years he worked as a journalist
in Taiwan, including two years at the Taipei Times
newspaper. He was also a broadcaster at Radio
Taiwan International, where he produced Strait
Talk – a weekly program about Taiwan and its
place in the world.
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Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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