United Daily News editorial
translated by Bevin Chu
March 28, 2007
Julian McMahon as Dr. Christian Troy and Dylan Walsh as Dr. Sean McNamara -- cosmetic surgeons to the stars in the outstanding TV series "Nip/Tuck" (2003 - ????, created by Ryan Murphy)
The Carver, a masked serial killer who disfigures and rapes his victims -- one of the primary villains in the outstanding TV series "Nip/Tuck" (2003 - ????, created by Ryan Murphy)
Mason Verger, after Dr. Hannibal Lecter was finished with him in "Hannibal" (2001, directed by Ridley Scott, written by Thomas Harris, David Mamet, and Steve Zaillian)
In the coming year, the Republic of China government on Taiwan will hold both a legislative election and a presidential election. These elections will not be civilized expressions of the democratic process. They will be unconstrained, bloody warfare, particularly the presidential election. With the polls only a year off, the stench of blood is already forcing people to hold their noses.
The culprit responsible for this murderous atmosphere is not individual Blue or Green camp political candidates, but the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime. Wave upon wave of ruling regime and ruling party campaigns for the "Rectification of Names" have left people in stunned disbelief. The central government and local governments have been toppling bronze statues of Chiang Kai-shek, demolishing walls surrounding public parks, conducting witch hunts against fellow Green camp candidates suspected of harboring "Blue" sympathies. The DPP has ganged up on the so-called "Eleven Bandits" within their own party. The DPP has accused the New Tide Faction of being "pro reunification." The DPP has even demanded that the March 29 celebration of Youth Day be abolished in favor of a "nativist" Youth Day, that David Lee be replaced as defacto ambassador to Washington, and that the term "National Language" be abolished. This succession of crude moves has left Taiwan unrecognizable.
Actually, most people on Taiwan saw through the phony "Rectification of Names" campaign long ago. They know that although the pretext for the campaign is the pursuit of justice and the healing of historic wounds, the underlying motive is the incitement of social polarization to gloss over the incompetence of the ruling regime. The result is historical wounds are not permitted to heal, and Taiwan is continually subjected to newly inflicted traumas.
Ruling DPP campaigns are not entirely "negative." One might describe them as "positively destructive." These destructive campaigns have wiped out hard-won advances in the Republic of China's political evolution. This is no accident. Besides revealing that the DPP has painted itself into a corner, they reveal that the DPP has betrayed its own democratic ideals. Realizing that it has reached the end of its rope, the DPP has resorted to doomsday tactics. When a ruling party treats electoral politics as a form of "Mutually Assured Destruction," yet prattles on about demanding justice and promoting a "normal country," clearly the people count for nothing.
That a ruling party could dream up an "Exclude Blue" policy and even an "Aggressive Exclude Blue" policy, shows that the people don't matter, that the DPP considers the greater half of the nation's citizens to be its hated enemy. Yu Hsi-kuen characterized opinion polls as a means by which the Blue camp uses the Green camp as a surrogate for bringing Blue offspring into the world. He even compared the struggle between Blue and Green to the campaign of ethnic cleansing waged by Serbia against Bosnia. Now how fearsome was that racially-motivated war of hatred?
What will happen if the DPP insists on seeing half of its own citizens as hated enemies, if it refuses to promote social reconciliation and national unity? Taiwan will remain a divided society, and Blue voters will become a permanent underclass, denied respect and denied a voice.
The DPP has long divided people into two categories. Now, even more perversely, it is dividing members of its own party into "us" and "them." It is conducting witch hunts within its own party, accusing rivals of being "reds." Comrades who demanded reform while Chen Shui-bian was mired in corruption have been denounced as traitors. This is an indication that the DPP has lost its collective mind.
The New Tide Faction once tutored others in Taiwan independence theory. Recently it urged the adoption of pragmatic cross-Straits relations. As a result it has been denounced by Deep Green extremists as "pro unification" and "pro China." The power struggle within the DPP resembles a feeding frenzy. The "Rectification of Names" campaign has provided DPP leaders with the perfect pretext for dog eat dog political struggles.
DPP cutthroat tactics were once directed outwards, against KMT machine politicians and party faithful. Today they are directed against members of their own party, against anyone who dares to speak with a different voice. Continued cutthroat tactics will result in a Deep Green state of siege in which dissent is forbidden. What will remain except the cries of former comrades as they hurl accusations against one another and settle personal scores?
Toppling bronze statues and abolishing the national language are nothing more than smoke screens, irrelevant to the "Rectification of Names" campaign. What the ruling regime really seeks to exploit is the hatred and resentment generated by its campaign of destruction. That alone can mask DPP incompetence and win public approval. If the DPP really wants to "rectify names," more democratic means are available. Instead it ignores public opinion, adopts the crudest methods available, and commits the most flagrant abuses of power imaginable.
Under such circumstances, Blue and Green oriented citizens will become increasingly alienated from each other, social consensus will become increasingly difficult to achieve, and a democratic future will become increasingly problematic.
How can a ruling party that incites ethnic hatred possibly bring about a harmonious society? The current wave of destruction cannot give Taiwan a new face or a new identity. All it can do is destroy the people's feelings of self-esteem and their sense of identity.
The cutthroat campaigns of 2004 neutered the Blue camp. The cutthroat campaign of 2008 will put Taiwan on the DPP chopping block, turning the people into fish waiting to be filleted. The "Rectification of Names" campaign is butchery in the guise of cosmetic surgery. All it can do is transform the face of Taiwan into the face of a monster.
Original Chinese below:
拆、排、切、廢：民進黨對台灣的整形或毀容？
聯合報／社論
2007/03/28
未來這一年，台灣面對的將不只是一場立委選舉及一場總統大選，情況顯示，這兩場選舉當然都不會是君子的民主競賽，而是全面瘋狂的廝殺與攻伐，尤以總統大選為然。距離投票還有一年，空氣中的血腥氣味，已經臭得令人掩鼻。
掀 起這股漫天殺氣的禍首，不是個別的藍綠候選人，而是大權在握的執政者。最近一波波黨政聯手假「正名」為題炒作的事件，令人目不暇給：中央與地方齊進的拆銅 像、拆圍牆；提名民調從「排藍」到深度排藍；民進黨內圍剿「十一寇」，連新潮流都被指為「統派」；乃至於要廢三二九重新票選本土青年節，駐美代表李大維被 撤換，到「國語」一詞將廢除。這一連串粗暴的拆、排、切、廢，每一刀都為台灣刻下傷痕。
這波「正名」運動的虛假及虛無，其實早為多數國人所看清。表面上，說是為了追求未了的轉型正義，為了平撫歷史的傷痕；實際上，卻是以製造社會矛盾為手段，來掩飾執政者的無能和無理。其結果，是歷史的舊傷未能癒合，台灣卻又增添新的創痛和恐懼。
且 看，「拆、排、切、廢」，不僅全都是「否定式」的思維，也全都是「破」和「毀」的手段。這「四毀」，在台灣民主進程中的此際突然鋪天蓋地湧現，絕非偶然。 除了顯示民進黨已陷入前進無路的政治死巷，也說明它已耗盡自身的民主理想；自暴自棄下，才如此不惜用「毀人」與「自毀」的絕地戰策，來鋌而走險，只圖僥倖 一逞。當一個執政黨把選戰打到這種「共趨淪亡」的地步，還能奢談什麼轉型正義或正常國家，它眼裡根本就沒有人民了。
作為執政黨，竟想得出 「排藍」、「深度排藍」這樣的機關，它眼中何止沒有人民，簡直是將大半國民當成仇敵。當游錫?將普通民調形容為藍軍對綠營的「借腹生子」，亦形同將藍綠之 爭擬喻為當年塞爾維亞對波士尼亞的「種族清洗」，那是多可怕的種族仇恨意識？試想，民進黨若始終把半數百姓視同仇敵，從不設法增進社會的和解、國家的團 結，台灣不僅將注定是個分裂的社會，藍色選民也儼然將成為民進黨治下的「賤民」階級，永遠得不到尊重，意見也不會被聽取。
民進黨不僅把人 民分成兩類，更變態的是，它更在黨內玩起抓鬼遊戲，丟紅帽、分敵我。所有曾在陳水扁貪瀆案期間發出「改革」呼籲的同志，全被當成「叛徒」聲討，這正是民進 黨精神錯亂的徵兆。而早年曾提供台獨理論指導的新潮流系，因主張在兩岸關係上採取務實作為，被深綠激進派貼上「統派」、「中國派」的標籤；這顯示民進黨內 部已為奪權殺紅了眼，「正名」恰好提供了一個同志相殘的大藉口。
當年民進黨的「割喉」戰術，是一片一片把對方的樁腳、支持者切過來；但現在，它割喉卻割到黨裡面來了，把不同調的人一片一片切出去，把不同的聲音一刀一刀割開來。再切下去，那塊禁止異議的深綠基地，除了鼓吹仇恨和私仇必報的殺聲，將剩下什麼？
拆 銅像也好，廢國語也罷，說穿了都只是煙幕彈，對台灣「正名」毫無實質助益。執政者想要的，只是從破毀的過程中輻射出來的仇恨和怨氣，那才可以遮掩它施政的 無能，並從中攫取戰功。民進黨若真要「正名」，原有更民主的途徑可以通行，但它卻完全罔顧民意，逕自採取了最粗暴、最濫權的手段。如此一來，在社會的向度 上，藍綠愈發斷離；在認同的向度上，台灣意識的凝聚愈發不易；在政治的向度上，民主的前程也愈發堪憂。
一個鼓吹仇恨的執政黨，豈可能帶來 和諧的社會？這一波的「拆、排、切、廢」大破大毀，看不出能為台灣創造一個全新的面孔或身分，反而將毀掉人民原有的自信和認同。二○○四年的割喉戰，被閹 割的是藍軍；二○○八之役，躺在民進黨砧板上的是台灣，而人民是待宰的魚肉。這場政治屠夫操刀的「正名」整形手術，只怕是要將台灣徹底毀容吧！
No comments:
Post a Comment