‘Three noes’ destroying the so-called ‘status quo’
By Paul Lin 林保華
As Typhoon Nanmadol threatened Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had other things on his mind, such as what to do about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). He thought invoking the so-called “1992 consensus” could silence Tsai and the Taiwanese who oppose unification. Apart from banging on about how much he was engaged with the preparations for Nanmadol’s landfall — ignoring the more considerable contributions of others — he called on Tsai to comment on his “three noes” policy: “no unification, no independence and no use of force.”
Tsai need not bother answer his questions, because I can answer them for her. Ma’s “three noes” threaten the “status quo.” Not only do they fail to maintain it, they conspire to obliterate it and perhaps are already doing so.
Let’s look at “no unification” first. On June 10, 2009, Ma announced his intention to stand again for chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The following morning, he gave an interview with CommonWealth Magazine during which, according to an article that appeared in the Chinese state-sponsored media outlet China Review News (CRN) a week later, he singled out the “no unification” part of his three noes. CRN quoted him as saying that “no unification” did not necessarily preclude the option of unification. Apparently, even as he was taking up the post of KMT chairman, Ma was preparing to scrap “no unification.” Perhaps he was respecting the dying wish of his father, Ma Ho-ling (馬鶴凌), inscribed on the latter’s urn: “Replace independence with gradual unification.”
