Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou endorsed the illegal "Occupy Central" movement in Hong Kong in a public speech on October 10 and was immediately slammed by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing.

Apparently that was not enough for Ma because within weeks he had reiterated his support for "Occupy Central" in an interview with The New York Times when he took the opportunity to brag of Taiwan's democratic "achievement" while complaining about the mainland's "stalled democratic development".

In the interview he could not have been prouder about democracy Taiwan-style, but does the reality add up to much? In my opinion Taiwan's current position, compared with the mainland's development, has little to brag about.

Ma said democracy had not only taken root in Taiwan but also grown up, adding he hoped mainland young people would find out "why Taiwan was able to implement democracy."

There is no denying that Taiwan copied Western-style democracy "as-is" more than 20 years go, but has there been any genuine benefit? The truth is almost everything has started going downhill since then. In terms of the economy, Taiwan used to be No 1 of the four "Asian Tigers" but has lost steam since the early 1990s and fallen behind the other three. And it would have been worse had it not profited from the mainland's peaceful development of recent years.

In politics the confrontational relationship between the "Blue Camp" and the "Green Camp" have resulted in almost constant verbal and physical fights in the "legislative yuan" and left the executive branch struggling to accomplish anything. Long gone are the days of "10 great engineering projects" under Chiang Ching-kuo's leadership. Adding insult to injury was Chen Shui-bian's giant fraud in twice winning the general election. Now "Taiwan's favorite son" has become "Taiwan's shame". If one must call all this "democratic achievement", it is better hidden in the basement than bragged about in public.

As for the mainland, instead of copying Western democracy it has maintained the unity of democracy and centralism while following a path of reform with its own characteristics and well-suited to its real situation. That has allowed the mainland to maintain its rapid pace of economic development for over 30 years, a miracle and doubtless the envy of the world. Today the popularity of the governing Communist Party of China is far greater than that of Taiwan's government or any of its political parties for that matter. That is why the fact that apples don't speak does not hurt their popularity at all.

The recent student protests in Taiwan and the ongoing "Occupy Central" in Hong Kong are similar in form and behavior, which is why both are illegal. Somehow Ma Ying-jeou found double-standards to be a handy approach and treated the two illegal movements like sin and grace. Maybe he is into self-contradiction and does not mind when it backfires, but that is the sorrow of democracy Taiwan-style.

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 11/10/2014 page10)