Former President Lee Teng-hui called for a change of the official title of the Republic of China on Saturday. He wanted the Republic of Taiwan in place of the Republic of China in Taiwan. He also wanted to serve as convener-general of the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan and lead a rally of 100,000 supporters for the rectification of the name. When the Alliance was formed, he was named honorary convener-general. He said he did not want that extra “honorary.”

The call came only a few days after Lee met with President Chen Shui-bian. Asked if the call resulted from their tete-a-tete, President Chen made no comment. Though not associated with the Alliance, Chen is Lee’s undeclared political heir, pursuing his policy of undeclared Taiwan independence. Perhaps he wants to remain a closet supporter for his predecessor’s call for changing the official title of the country, of which he is chief of state. Certainly he does not want to be called president of the Republic of Taiwan now.

President Lee is a man of changes. He started as a Marxist. Das Kapital was his bible. He became a card-carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party. He then renounced Communism and espoused Christianity. The Holy Bible became his good book. He later joined the Kuomintang, vowing to uphold the Three Principles of the People Dr. Sun Yat-sen invented as the recipe for the reinvigoration of China. Finally he served as chairman of that party that ruled Taiwan for five decades. He became president of the Republic of China before he had been elected to that party chairmanship. As president and chairman of the Kuomintang, he started a new nationalist movement in Taiwan. His new nationalism calls for loyalty and devotion to the “New Taiwanese.” Anybody who is loyal and devoted to Taiwan is a “New Taiwanese” regardless of his place of birth. His appeal to the “New Taiwanese” helped Ma Ying-jeou, a mainlander born in Hong Kong, beat Chen Shui-bian, the native-born mayor of Taipei, in the mayoralty election in 1998. But when Ma ran again for a second term at the end of last year, the former president berated his “New Taiwanese” and called upon the electorate to oust him as a leader of the alien regime in Taiwan.

The alien regime is the title President Lee conferred on the Kuomintang government he once headed. True it is that the Kuomintang government was an alien regime in Taiwan from 1949 to 1996. It was headed by Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo - with a brief interregnum of C.K. Yen in between - and Lee himself from 1988 to May 20, 1966 when he was popularly elected president of the Republic of China. Lee is a native islander, and the government he heads as president elected by universal suffrage is no longer an alien regime. In other words, the alien regime was transformed and reborn as a government of the people of Taiwan. Incidentally, to Taiwan’s aborigines, all governments on the island - from the Dutch colonial administration on down to the Democratic Progressive government since 2000 - are alien regimes.

Though politically changing quickly like a quick-change artist, President Lee has one constant devotion, his patriotism to Taiwan. He espoused Marxism for he believed it would save Taiwan. He joined the Kuomintang because he was convinced that he could do more for Taiwan than he continued to stay out of the party. He campaigned for Ma for the simple reason that his “New Taiwanese” nationalism would help thwart the threat from the People’s Republic of China. He has renounced his new Taiwanese nationalism and now wants Taiwan for the native-born islanders. Hence his call for de-sinicization or Taiwanization, of which the campaign to rectify the name of Taiwan is the latest manifestation.

Something has gone wrong during President Lee’s metamorphosis.

There are a large number of mainlanders in Taiwan. There are no statistics on the places of birth for all the people on the island, but a rule of thumb places two out of every ten men, women and children as mainlanders or those who came to Taiwan after 1945 and their offspring. As mainlanders and islanders have intermarried, there is no telling exactly how many people in Taiwan would identify themselves as mainlanders or islanders. As a matter of fact, most of the mainlanders are just as Taiwanese as their islander neighbors. And President Lee himself tried to disarm the bitter feud between islanders and mainlanders - the result of the February 28 Incident of 1947 - by proclaiming a national holiday, Peace Memorial Day, in commemoration of those killed in the riots and the massacre 56 years ago.

Gone are the days of narrow provincialism.

President Lee steadfastly and devotedly loves Taiwan. His patriotism, however, is misdirected. His campaign for Taiwanization does not do the islanders much good. On the contrary, he is doing them a lot of harm by his China-bating. Everybody knows Taiwan cannot declare independence without inviting a Chinese invasion. Some people believe Taiwan needs China for survival as a viable economy. Almost all are agreed that Taiwan needs China as a partner for economic progress. Needling China serves only to make bad relations with China worse.

Mr. Lee has the right shoe on the wrong foot. Will the man of changes make another change?

（本評論代表個人意見）