Just wondering…
Does anyone know of any parallels to the good ol’ KMT, id est fascist early-to-mid-twentieth century political parties that still thrive, only now they wear golf jackets and caps as opposed to khakis and mausers? Some party in Eastern Europe? South America? No communist parties please and those dinosaurs in Japan’s Diet don’t count.
Xie xie
Ed
The new KMT is not enough?
I mean a party in another country, not some neo-Nazi type organization, but a current “legitimate” political organization with fascist roots and a track record of through and through corruption, brutality, etc.
I guess what I’m asking is - in this regard - is the KMT unique?
Ed
I think you will find some fairly close parallels in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey, and many countries in Latin America.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking. I was just wondering if anyone had any concrete examples.
Thanks, though
Ed
The Arena party in El Salvador. Or actually the FMLN. Both were guerilla/death squad operations but both are now constitutional parties.
It seems like having a CIA asset as head of state did El Salvador some good. Actually if you read the link, it’s amazing that the double act of Robert White and the CIA turned out so well, given that they hated each other so much.
Thanks, that’s interesting.
I had an odd conversation with a Taiwanese girl about this.
She said that when the KMT arrived a bunch of people disappeared, killed by the KMT and their relatives never found out what happened to them. I said that since Lee Teng Hui talked to White Lily students and allowed free elections which the KMT won and that they later allowed the DPP to be elected they should be a considered a constitutional party. She looked at me as if I was completely mad. Made me feel guilty really. But I still think it’s true. If dictatorial ruling parties knew they’d be prosecuted if they allowed elections, they would have no incentive to do so and would most likely go out in Ceausescu style bloody revolution.
Actually that reminds me. The East German communist party is still competing in elections, even if they changed their name. And several successor parties to the Communists have won elections in Eastern Europe. Ok you said no Communists. But what about Sinn Fein and the illegal paramilitary Unionists in Northern Ireland. Both of them are now legitimate parties. Well more or less. Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein leader was very likely on the IRA army council. In fact someone told me that John Reid had the following conversation without a politician one of the terrorist linked parties -
Politician: We’ll have to talk to the terrorists. They might not accept this!
John Reid: How do you talk to the terrorists? Do you go into a room with mirrors?
A girl looked at you and made you feel really guilty?
Oh, and shouldn’t that be a “Kuomintang” in the title?
There are too many differences between what happened here and what happened in other countries, starting by the fact that a superior force was helping the KMT during most of the bad years, to avoid Taiwan to fall into communist hands.
A dictatorship with a good cash flow of money generally does good (it does bad once they don’t have money), because most of the people who are winning the money are the ones in power, or behind them (this also explains most of the modern democracies, only that general public does choose who will be the next bunch of people pocketing money)… So no reason for them no to develop even more their country/pocket…
Look to India, and the Sub-continent.
That’s assuming that everyone who disappeared were innocent to begin with.
I think history has shown that those that didn’t take CKS offer of leaving Taiwan when they took over, and insisted on challenging KMT rule, were exiled, executed, or imprisoned.
People who disagree these days can vent their frustrations in a non-violent manner and vote DPP or any pan-Green party. So for the foreseeable future there will probably be no revolution in Taiwan.
let the profiteers take care of the government (as shown this week) and soon you’ll have a revolution…
The Colorado Party in Paraguay has some interesting similarities with the KMT.