Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Over the past year, President Ma Ying-jeou has pursued diplomatic and cross-strait policies based on the “one China” principle, eventual unification and opposition to two Chinas and Taiwanese independence. But a recent poll by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views found the public and Ma are moving in a diametrically opposed directions.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is seen by many as the proverbial beggar who came and took over Taiwan's Temple. They came as a colonial power, destroyed the island's economy to support their losing war effort in China, and finally retreated back to the island to grab the positions of power, property and wealth as their own. It is in this context and with this perspective that the charade of the corruption trial of Taiwan former president, Chen Shui-bian needs to be seen. In that trial, the evidence mounts and mounts not as regards Chen's guilt, which has yet to be proven but towards the double standard of justice in Taiwan. That double standard has always been a characteristic of the KMT from its Martial Law days on. Chen's greatest fault remains that he is Taiwanese and he stood up to the KMT; he not only stood up to them but worse than that he used the corrupt system that had been installed by the beggar in the temple for his own and not for their profit.