Everybody has to retire some day. And most everyone will just take it easy and enjoy life after retirement. Not so with Lee Teng-hui, who retired as president in 2000.
As a matter of fact, he is very active — politically, of course — though he had promised again and again before retirement he would become a Christian evangelist to propagate the gospel in remote areas of Taiwan.
Lee ate his words almost as soon as he had stepped down as Taiwan's first popularly elected president. He quit the Kuomintang to form the Taiwan Solidarity Union, which at one time held a dozen seats in the Legislative Yuan. The party he has created became a political ally of the then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party and President Chen Shui-bian was his unofficial heir. Their relations soured, but Lee has never let anybody, particularly Chen, the “protege,” steal his front-rank status as Taiwan's godfather of independence.
In 2008, Lee helped Frank Hsieh campaign for president, not because Hsieh was his protege but because he dislikes Ma Ying-jeou, a fact he concealed in order to help beat Chen Shui-bian who was running for re-election as mayor of Taipei in 1998. Ma is a Hong Kong-born Chinese mainlander, but Lee then called him a new Taiwanese and urged all native-born islanders to vote for him.
Now that Ma has been running for a second term, Lee has rekindled his dislike for him and is doing what he can to abort Ma's re-election come Jan.14. Lee is even going to the extreme of urging James Soong, whom he managed to defeat in the 2000 presidential election, to run against Ma. Soong left the Kuomintang, where he was the secretary-general under Lee, to run as an independent, and polled some 300,000 votes short of edging Chen out.
Even at the ripe old age of 88, Lee appears more active in Taiwan politics than he used to be. Why?
Lee is a man with a mission. He wants to be the Moses of Taiwan, leading the people to a utopian republic. He started his mission early. He read Marx and was convinced that Communism might one day liberate Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule. He then became a card-carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party that had a chance to unseat President Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. Chiang reigned supreme in Taiwan and Lee thought he had to join the Generalissimo and the Kuomintang if he couldn't fight them even with the help of the Communists. Lee left the Communist Party and joined Chiang's ruling party in Taiwan. Then, the Goddess of Luck smiled on Lee. He was picked by Chiang's son as vice president in 1984, and the younger Chiang died to make him the accidental president.
As president, Lee at first tried to reach an understanding with Beijing. Shortly before he stepped down, he became convinced that the People's Republic would collapse and he should stop dealing with Beijing to accomplish his self-assigned lifelong mission. He fell out with the Chinese Communists and decided to go his own way. He says he always supports Taiwan independence.
In Lee's struggle for the independence of Taiwan, James Soong and everyone else is just a pawn that he will put to whatever use he sees fit. That's why Lee is using Soong as well as Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party's standard bearer, in order to dethrone Ma, the mainlander he believes is the only obstacle to the creation of the long-awaited republic of Taiwan.
Well, neither Soong nor Tsai will tango to the tune Lee is playing. They both know full well Lee is a poor Pied Piper. However, the twosome will dance to please the old man, though they do so to best serve their personal interests. Soong wants to revive his People First Party. Tsai, without the shadow of a doubt, wishes to beat Ma in the presidential race. The chances are that neither of them will get what they want.
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（本文刊載於100.7.27 The China Post 4版 ）