There's an Eleventh Commandment in U.S. politics. It's a phrase popularized by the late President Ronald Reagan. In his 1990 autobiography, An American Life, Reagan attributed it to Gaylord Parkinson, Republican Party chairman in California. Personal attacks on Reagan during his 1966 campaign for governor of California became so heavy that Parkinson postulated the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of another fellow Republican. “It's a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since,” Reagan wrote in his book.
That Republican Eleventh Commandment, it seems, isn't obeyed by some members of the ruling Kuomintang in Taiwan.
Sean Lien, the eldest son of honorary Chairman Lien Chan of the Kuomintang, isn't running for mayor of Taipei yet, for the election will take place two years from now in 2014. A member of the ruling party's Central Standing Committee, the younger Lien may be a contender and is said to have started making political hay. Asked whether he will run earlier this month, he said that what eligible voters should care about is how the Taiwan economy will perform. “If the economy is busted and if (I were) elected (mayor),” he said, “(I) would be the don of Gai Bang at best.” He has come under attack from his fellow Kuomintang members.
Gai Bang, or the Beggars' Gang, was popularized by the celebrated Chinese swordsmanship novelist Jin Long in his eight-book Heaven Dragon series. The gang are a fictitious martial arts group that play an important part in fighting against an ethnic minority invasion during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
The gang is incorporates a strict ranking system marked by the number of bags a beggar carries. The more the beggar carries, the higher their ranking. The most a beggar-fighter may carry is nine bags, while a novice carries none. Not all the beggars live in rags and filth. There is a division in the gang called the “Clean-Dressed” (distinct from the the “Dirty-Dressed”). They are well-off people with property who join the organization willingly because they identify with the values of Gai Bang. They just wear a few patches on their clothing to signify their identity and self-chosen way of life.
Like the Greek philosopher Diogenes, Gai Bang members look down upon worldly pleasure.
There is another Gai Bang in fiction, however. Another novelist, Gu Long, created a Beggars' Gang that was made up entirely of beggars. Incidentally, one of the best dishes of Hangzhou cuisine known to Westerners is “Beggars' Chicken.” It was supposed to have been invented by beggars. The dish is made by wrapping the bird in clay and then baking it in a fire pit because beggars have no ovens. When the clay is removed, the chicken's feather comes off with the clay. Lotus leaves add a fresh flagrance to the meat.
Probably likening Sean Lien's Gai Bang to that of Gu Long's, some party heavyweights and top Kuomintang government officials have fired a broadside at the yet-to-be contender for daring to compare the citizens of Taipei to beggars. And as politicians, they continued to condemn him for trying to become the don of Gai Bang to enjoy “honor and wealth.” But the attack was off the mark. Lien is the scion of one of Taiwan's foremost families with honor and wealth. Besides, he inserted the remarks light-heartedly, making the comparison to let a great many avid readers know his impression of the Taipei mayoralty. Since most of the ruling party membership agree with Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, a teapot tempest ensued in the Kuomintang.
With President Ma's popularity at its lowest since his inauguration in 2008, many political pundits believe several Kuomintang leaders are champing at the bit to replace him as chairman of the party. So Sean Lien was asked whether he is also planning to run in the party chairmanship election scheduled for next year.
He replied, “Freedom from avarice makes one indomitable,” denying rumors that he might be attempting to gather strength to prevent Ma from doubling as Kuomintang chairman.
On the other hand, President Ma, who was mayor of Taipei for eight years from 1998 to 2006, said at a regular Central Standing Committee meeting last Wednesday, the younger Lien meant well by describing the mayoralty as godfather of the Beggars' Gang. Ma added he hopes people wouldn't read between the lines because if they do, it would be unfair not just to the Kuomintang but to Lien as well, while urging the party to stand united.
Well, Ma made the tempest subside, but failed to arbitrate the intra-party dispute the way one of Gai Bang godfathers did, according to Jin Long. Lord Hong the Seventh (洪七公), known also as Nine-Finger Divine Beggar, was a great arbiter. He successfully arbitrated a dispute between the Clean-Dressed and the Dirty-Dressed by ordering his beggar-fighters to wear the Clean Dress and the Dirty Dress alternately every other year.
A fan of Jin Long, Ma must have known the fictitious arbitration and is expected to come up with a stronger method of achieving unity for a ruling party that, if the Taiwan economy remains in its current limbo, may lose the mayoralty races next year and the presidential and legislative elections in 2016.
〈本文僅供參考，不代表本會立場〉
（本文刊載於101.11.12 The China Post 4版）
王順民
(
12月6日 16:38
)
徐明珠
(
2007年8月3日 15:19
)
