The KMT's Questionable Sunshine Loyalty: When Will Taiwan Wake Up?

Sunday June 08, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

As outsiders and losers, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) came to Taiwan; it was only by force of arms that they took colonial rule over the island. They remained and kept a one-party state resisting attempts to democratize the island for close to a half a century. When they lost in elections, they threatened to take their ball (and the stolen state assets) and see what kind of a Quisling deal they could work out with China under China's terms of re-unification. Now it is also being revealed that they had more than one escape route to benefit them and their families. What route is that? Dual citizenship and green card status in the United States.

Here comes the unfortunate imbalance of the recent legislative elections when the KMT got 54 percent of the vote, yet by the system were allowed 75 percent of the seats and a veto-overriding position. So, with more and more KMT legislators and officials being caught with questionable loyalty to Taiwan, the KMT dominated Legislative Yuan is now contemplating changing the rules of the game before any more get caught. Isn't that nice?

KMT Legislator Diane Lee has yet to provide the paperwork to prove that she officially gave up her US citizenship and will not have to pay US$ millions of dollars back to the Taiwanese people. Such citizenship is not lost by simply putting your US passport in the desk drawer until you later need it. Jason Yuan is another of the most recent; he is awaiting approval of his green card for the USA. Thus KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng is suggesting that the KMT dominated Legislative Yuan change the rules of the game to cover these and future upcoming revelations.

Caught with their pants down, these profiteers of the state who have lived and prospered on Taiwan's taxpayers' dollars now seek to change the Civil Servants Work Act and Nationality Law. The question for the people of Taiwan is how strong does the coffee have to be before you can smell it?