Sayaka Chatani

Report on Taiwan: 2.28 (② the KMT campaign)

On the same day as the DPP supporters launched the human chain campaign, the KMT also organized several events and launched the blood-donation campaign. According to the KMT, the purpose of the blood donation campaign is to mix the blood of various races to strengthen the unity of the Taiwanese. I was very curious about how the KMT would deal with 2.28 since it's the very KMT who committed the massacre...

Apparently, their strategy is to regard the 228 Incident as a mistake of the whole human society. This is best-expressed in Lian Zhan (KMT president)'s article that he published on 聯合news and other newspapers on Feb,28. (I cannot find the article online) The title is: "苦難是教訓, 不是一本帳簿." What is fascinating about this article is that he brings up a Western thought (or Christian thought) of "Let's forgive the sinners." He does not say it as a direct quote, but says "∼是西方宗教家和偉大思想家們常常警告的，不要去把過去的人所受的苦難，當做今天的資產和存款 (the direct translation is: do not regard people's suffering in the past as today's assets and savings)", whose message probably is "let us move on!". This unrelated (and somewhat self-complacent) reference to the western culture actually represents very well that the KMT faces huge difficulty in the interpretation of 2.28.

It is probably that the KMT was pressured to organize some kind of event on 2.28 through the DPP's rallies. They are now planning to launch an "anti-black gold (or anti-corruption)" campaign on 3.13. I do not know how the general Taiwanese think, but at least to me the KMT cannot avoid giving an impression of "reacting passively to the DPP's strategy." 2.28 was an extreme example but we can find the DPP's influence on the KMT in many places now. One example is their usage of the "nationalism" card. The power of rising nationalism is becoming eminent, so even the KMT cannot ignore it any more, and rather has to take advantage of it. They promote Lian Zhan as Taiwanese, not Chinese; they speak both in Taiwanese and Chinese in speeches, they create an emotional atmosphere in their rallies. Many Taiwanese I have met complain about the trend of populism triggered by the DPP. It is worth noting that there is one big difference between the DPP and the KMT in their management of the nationalism card, which is their objects of enmity; the DPP sets the Mainland China as their enemy, while the KMT sees the US as their competitor. I heard one cute expression of the anti-US sentiment of the KMT: "Taiwanese Pearl Tea is much more delicious than Starbucks coffee!"

I am not trying to be anti-KMT even though this posting looks like it.:) It is actually very difficult for the KMT to reconstruct a new image while not denying what they did in the past (i.e. Can they admit the irony of holding the 2.28 event in the Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall?), and to differentiate themselves from the DPP while avoiding being pro-China. Considering these problems, the high supporting rate of the KMT is actually amazing.