The inauguration of Ma Ying-jeou, 57, as Taiwan's new president ushered in a remarkable break and major shift from the political gridlock of eight years under tribalist-pro-independence DPP President Chen Shui Bian.
Eight years of counter-productive "food fights," "tribalism, " wasted dollar diplomacy," "political grandstanding""official graft and corruption scandals" while Taiwan languished and the forces of globalization swept Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.
Ah Bian and his party, the DPP, literally mismanaged and misruled Taiwan politically, economically, and culturally and ran it to the ground, and he and his narrow-minded minions literally froze Taiwan into a "time warped dead zone" which saw China mainland soaring and superceding Tawain, in major frog-leaps in the new challenging world of globalization.
Now, with a new era, it is time for Taiwan's 23 million inhabitants to look to the future; and even more important, to think and act "out of the box." Time to act, and time to act boldly, courageously, and intelligently. No time to be wasted in any more inane counter-productive tribalist "food fights."
Think about the opportunities open for the inhabitants of Taiwan to apply their human and capital resources in the efforts to rebuild the earthquake-damaged provinces of Sichuan and China's Southwest. Think about a renewed China with its vast economic, educational, cultural, political infrastructures in need of improvement and better management.
Think about applying Taiwan's enormous management skills and experience in infrastructural projects to rebuild China, with its educational, business, manufacturing, environemental engineering, transit, housing infrastructures in dire need for constructive and creative planning, design, and implementation. Taiwan's strength can be creatively applied across Taiwan Straits inside China as the decibel level of political rhetoric and posturing get deemphasied and diminished. Conversely, the opportunities for Taiwan to open up for mainland Chinese tourists and business networking can be expanded with less political barriers and hurdles.
Yesterday, when I saw and experienced 1.3 billion peoples inside China, from all walks of life, government, soldiers, rescue workers, NGOs, factories, students, workers, professionals, academics, young and old, altogether take a moment of pause, in mourning, for 3 solid minutes in memory of those who died in the Sichuan earthquake May 12, I felt an emotional catharsis, and an energy which I know has spread among all the the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, i.e. yan huang zi sun 炎黄子孙 .
The descendants of the Yellow Emperor, when they unit and work together, can move mountains.
"The Dragon awakes." Ju Long Jue Xing 巨龙觉醒.Here are some of my concrete ideas on how Ma Ying-Jeou can undertake some initiatives and act boldly:
1. Stick with and work in good faith to "walk the walk" and "do the do" on the 1992 Taiwan-China Consensus, and don't deviate and undermine the spirit of detente, peace, and harmony, and normalization of relations across the Taiwan straits.
2. Jettison any notion of the "I" word or any creative subterfuges which have been mischievously attempted by Ah Bian and the DPP, with colossal failures. The Dalai Lama and Tibet's "double-talk" between the "A" word, and the "I" words are duplicitous moves which have proven to be counter-productive and breed mistrust. The Dalai Lama has no credibility whatsoever in the eyes of all the Chinese peoples. Learn from his bad mistakes in "doublespeak." You can't speak with a "forked tongue" in dealings among Chinese.
3. A Cultural Resurgence ( 文化复兴 Wen Hua Fu Xin) must be initiated by all Taiwanese to probe and carefully reform the direction of Taiwan society, more particularly in determining what foreign, especially Western, values, are worth adopting or adapting, and which should be abandoned and cleansed out. This is particularly acute among many of Taiwan's youths, who are becoming culturally ambivalent, and lost in their rootlessnes, confusion, alienation from their Chinese, Asian, and Confucian roots.
4. Look towards Asia-Pacific for the "win-win" colloboration and synergy in charting the future of Taiwan in the challenging new world of globalization. That synergy and "brain power" of Taiwan's 23 million agile inhabitants can combined with the resurging emerging "soft power" of China and the rest of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Eurasia, in new initiatives which do not necessarily look to Europe or the United States as the destination or the model.
5. Debunk any residual Colonial Mentality, 殖民主义思想 Zhi Min Zhu Yi Si Xiang still harbored by many of Taiwan's 23 inhabitants that, (a) "The American Moon is Rounder! 美国月亮比较圆 Mei Guo Yue Liang Bi Jiao Yuan; (b) The white man's fart smell fragrant. Bai Ren Pi Hao Xiang 百人屁好香. None of these propositions hold any credence. All farts smell bad. It is foolish and asinine for Taiwanese, in the islands of Taiwan or overseas in North America and Australasia to maniacally pursue the status of "honorary whitehood" 名誉白人 Ming Yu Bai Ren, or otherwise jettison the notion that Taiwanese are Chinese, once and for all. Taiwanese must stop trying to be "yellow monkeys" aping everything American, from Hollywood schlock and hip-hop and all that "c"rap. Taiwan's youths can do better with their own creative fire and creative juice, using their own idiosyncratic environment instead of imitating blindly anything and everything Western.
6. Open up Taiwan's links to China mainland at a "user-friendly" pace, without the bureacractic maize which had hindered cross-Taiwan straits relations, and ditto, from Beijing's Central government.... time is of the essence. The Chinese peoples across the Taiwan Straits need to work efficiently, and in the most effective way to rebuild China and make Chinese society a better society, environmental-wise, infrastructure-wise; And Taiwan can assist greatly in this regard.
7. Govern cleanly, smartly, and responsively. Don't rely on the Western and European powers to help you lead Taiwan. The Western and Europeanised notion of "democracy" and "human rights" is not necessarily the right fit for peoples of Taiwan and the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Look at the inner strengths of Chinese civilization for alternative concepts and models of governance. Don't be a Western ape.
Clearly and absolutely, the future of Taiwan is one which is inextricably linked to China.
The challenges of globalization is upon Taiwan to think differently and creatively, i.e. as borders open, societies truly become more diverse, and yes, Western Colonialists 西方殖民主义 Xi Fang Zhi Min Zhu Yi is seeing and experiencing its waning days, and Pax Europa and Pax Americana further dim, and much of old Europe and the United States continue its precipitous moral, cultural, ad economic decline.
Taiwan's 23 million peoples must link up with China's 1.3 billion Chinese, plus 40 million diasporic Chinese scattered throughout over 135 countries around the world to work for a more harmonious world, a much better world, free of the political "food fights" and inanities that we saw lately in the Western world.
Yes, we can do better, together, collectively, cooperatively, joining the "brain power," the "brawn power," and the "human and capital resources" of all global Chinese.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/print/157332.htm
More news on Ma Ying Jeao's installation as Taiwan's new president:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/print/157176.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0521/p04s04-woap.html
Some background about the 1992 Taiwan-China Consensus, which should serve as a framework for normalization of relations across the Taiwan Straits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Consensus
My earlier blog entitled "I have a Dream" posted earlier at Spatium Trientis:
http://spatiumtrientis.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-have-dream-by-chinese-martin-luther.html
