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A Stray Thot

AIPEI — The majesty of democracy wasn't on display during President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration here Saturday so much as its banality. Thousands showed up in front of the Presidential Palace — a building that looks a little like a Chinese version of Washington's Old Executive Office Building — to hear an inaugural address that, with its themes of improving Taiwan's education system and economic competitiveness, could have been delivered by the average New Democrat. The ceremony subtly underscored Taiwan's distinctiveness from Mainland China, with traditional aboriginal songs strongly represented in the program, but Chen didn't say anything unexpected about the island's relation to the Mainland nor did he seem to stir the crowd much — just another day in the Chinese people's first democracy.

Nearly everyone in the audience — in a peculiarly Taiwanese touch — was wearing white floppy hats with the Republic of China flag emblazoned on them, distributed free to all comers as if it were a special promotion day at the ballpark. I haven't witnessed such a ruly throng since I saw a few years ago a fireworks display in Montreal, where the spectacular pyrotechnics were greeted with near-silence by a crowd that seemed to consider "oohing" rude and "aahing" totally out of the question. Similarly, Chen's speech didn't have "applause lines" so much as "dainty-clapping lines," occasionally eliciting the sort of measured approval one expects to hear after someone wins a routine point in a tennis match.

Which isn't to suggest that the Taiwanese in general are docile. This slight people — the women are as slender as runway models, and the military must not buy uniform slacks with more than a 30-inch waist — have created an Asian Tiger as ferocious as any. Motorbikes — that tell-tale sign of growth in this part of the world — clog the roads during rush hour, weaving, swarming, buzzing, in a scene of jostling, perpetual motion. The downtown streets have a Blade Runnerish aspect: bright vertical signs with Chinese characters proliferate overhead, pedestrians and parked motorbikes in long lines jam the sidewalks, tiny stores compete for attention hard against one another — a commercial exuberance bursts from every available space.

Then, there is the small matter of defying the Mainland Beast. There was plenty of drama in the inauguration Saturday, starting with Chen carrying his wife down the steps of their home to leave for the ceremony (she was paralyzed a decade ago in what is believed to have been an attack motivated by her opposition to political activities). But it was all understated, as for the first time a Chinese people peacefully and democratically transferred power from one party (in this case, the formerly repressive KMT) to another. Chen didn't have to lob any rhetorical bombs at the Mainland in his speech, because the sheer fact of this transition said so much. No coups, no violence, no threats — just the mundane fulfillment of constitutional requirements. Make no mistake: the banality of democracy is its majesty.

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