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TAIPEI--A whole lot of "face" was lost in the Presidential election
in Taiwan March 18.
The biggest loser was the People's Republic of China, whose
leaders Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji repeatedly warned the Taiwan voters
not to elect pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic
Progressive Party. The alternative was invasion or other force.
The courageous voters of Taiwan weren't buying and wouldn't be
intimidated.
They gave Chen a stunning victory.
China's true stripes were shown: a paper tiger.
To lose "face" is usually defined as "utmost humiliation." In Asia,
it goes deeper: the complete stripping of one's prestige or identity.
China tried to mask its own loss of face by blaming outgoing
President Lee Teng-hui for creating the loss through his advocacy of
"state-to-state" relations. But all the candidates were on record as
favoring talks with Beijing on an equal footing. President-elect Chen says
he'll talk about "one China"
but not as a fait accompli or as a condition or as a principle for talking.
No deal, says China, employing all the flexibility of the Great Wall.
China insists that talks only be held with the agreement that "one China"
will be the result.
As far as loss of face goes, Lee Teng-hui lost it big time, partly
because he helped create such a lively democracy. But in the end he lost
the Kuomintang.
After 55 years of power on Taiwan the KMT--the party of Sun Yat-sen,
Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo--is out of power.
Untangling the KMT's web of financial dealings alone is certain to expose
more loss of "face."
Good young men who devoted their loyalties as KMT servants--Ma
Ying-jeou, Jason Hu,
Chen Chien-jen, Su Chi come to mind but there are others--have lost face
heavily but they will be back.
And you had better take your hat off for James Soong, who incurred
the wrath of party leaders Lee and Lien Chan and ran as an independent with
no party backing.
Chen's winning count was 4,977,737 or 39.3 percent. Soong's was 4,664,
932 or 36.8. Soong captured most of the constituencies around Taipei and
is forming his own party to give Chen a run for it down the road.
Voter participation in Taiwan reached an electrifying 82 percent,
compared with 49 percent in the 1996 U.S. Presidential election.
Taipei continues to make democratic news: A president-elect awaits a
peaceful handover
of office from an elected sitting president, something unique in
5,000 years of Chinese and 400 years of Taiwanese history.
Away from the hustle and bustle and general cacophony of downtown
Taipei, I sought my favorite place for quiet reflection on change,
politics, election post mortems and the general condition of humanity.
This happens over a steaming pot of jasmine or ooloong tea at the Hall
of the Three Rarities tea room on the top floor of the National Palace
Museum.
When I first visited Taiwan nearly 40 years ago, no one here was
allowed vote for anything. Now, at this moment, with the statistics cited
above, Taiwan is probably Asia's most democratic piece of real estate. I
wish I had spoken up a bit more loudly some years ago against the
naysayers who insisted "Asia is not ready for democracy."
Perhaps we will see the "Taiwan experience" and the "South Korean
experience" replicated someday in Mainland China.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.