Ma Ying-jeou: An Example of Cultural Atavism / HoonTing （文化返祖的馬英九）

Ma Ying-jeou: An Example of Cultural Atavism  /  HoonTing

Having studied in the US for years, speaking fluent English, and having been highly valued by the international society, why is Ma Ying-jeou considered an incompetent and visionless leader, just three years after taking the Presidential office?

Not long ago, he appealed to all the students on Taiwan to recite the ancient Chinese codes, especially the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucius School, and ludicrously expected that all the citizens will be decent accordingly.  The current president of modern Taiwan is smugly sketching a compliant agricultural realm instead of a knowledge-based and liberal-minded society that most of us are drafting for Taiwan’s future.

MYJ never changes.  Placing supremacy on Chinese value, MYJ is actually an obstinate example of Chinese cultural atavism.

Unless tracing back MYJ’s speeches and behavior, we can hardly identify this cultural atavistic gene.  Ma’s incapability is based on his belief in such mythological slogans as “To rule the world, half the volume of Analects of Confucius will suffice.”  He believes in, and he is practicing, the creed of rural empire that the only thing a good leader needs to do is advocate morality.  He refuses to accept, or is simply ignorant of, the complexity, diversity, and pluralism of the knowledge-based society of the 21st century.  A modern society needs an effective institution to deal with diverse interests, which quite often conflict with each other.  Without transparent decision-making process, it would be impossible for a society to cope with the complexity in terms of politics, economy, education, and whatever related to modern life.  That is why we trust democracy and science, which are based on the power of human reason. 

Yet, Ma and his staff take more interest in old teachings than modern science.  Most officials in the Ma administration are good at old Chinese literature.  They insist that old Confucius codes have the magic power to settle everything from individual chores to world affairs.  For them, the governance of a state is nothing more than proposing a series of cultural and moral propaganda.   They highlight “Chinese Culture” to the extent where obscure word games seem to outweigh anything concrete and precise.  The latest example is that MYJ got mad at a media’s “wrongly” altering the sequence of his political slogan from “No Unification, No Independence, and No War” to “No Independence, No Unification, and No War.”  Who can tell the difference, unless it is not a slogan but a sequential plan?

Years ago, a journalist asked the question: How could it be possible for a stylist sport as Ma to hold an ancient ideology?  Now it proves not only a high possibility but a solid fact.

MYJ visited Japan in July 2006.  He planned to show his good will and openness; however, he gave Japanese journalists the chance to conclude:

People were aware of MYJ’s not so friendly personal stance on the disputes of Yasuguni, Senkaku Islands.  But now, from his latest visit, we have realized that it is the question of ideology.  Attachment to China, and detachment from the US and Japan has been typical of MYJ's kowtow philosophy.  It is impossible to alter his deeply-rooted mentality of viewing Japan as the enemy. 

Some journalists even confirmed:

 MYJ’s historical view is oddly surprising.  His hostility toward Japan did not come from the Pacific War but originated from one hundred years ago, when China was under the rule of Manchurians.  It has been merged into his gene. 

Ma keeps spotlighting the “balance” between the US-Japan alliance and Beijing in every possible way.  Lately, he instructed his ROC government-in-exile, through the National Security Council, to strengthen the propaganda of the Chinese sovereignty over Senkaku Islands and appropriate funds to Chinese Diaoyu Islands Protection Association, a Chinese sovereignty agitator.  Japanese journalists had actually foreseen this before Ma took office.

When the rest of the world are competing to liberate their nationals’ imagination to cope with the knowledge-based era, Ma is ridiculous enough to pull Taiwanese back to the atmosphere of Manchurian rule in the 19th century or earlier, when our intellectuals poured all their energy reciting the words Han scholars had written several thousand years before.

What about the modernity Taiwanese has quested for more than a century since the Japanese rule?  Where shall we rest our future?

On September 1, the next Chinese President Xi Jing-ping revealed in an address the direction that “ancient Chinese value is the core while the Western technologies are the tools”.  Ma is believed to follow Xi's route soon.  It is not only because Ma adopts China-friendly political policies, but, most of important of all, he possesses the in-built  conviction that China is the supreme value over all the other civilizations. 

The result of 2012 election is not merely about the issue of “unification or independence.”  It is about the values and way of life.

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文化返祖的馬英九
Ma Ying-jeou: An Example of Cultural Atavism / HoonTing

馬倡讀經 教師盼尊重教育主體性◎自由（2011.09.29）教師節 馬英九高調倡讀經◎聯合（2011.09.28）