Resolution for 2009: Put everything in focus internationally

In fact, it does not require an expert to understand this, which was based on the pursuit of a win-win situation. Both sides need peace and prosperity which cannot be achieved by war and confrontation. It is only natural that Ma Ying-jeou made closer ties with the mainland his campaign platform and got an overwhelming mandate.

If you look at some of the milestones in cross-strait relations, there is optimism for a sanguine future. From the three-no's of 1979 (no contact, no talk, no compromise) to three-links of Dec. 15, 2008 (direct transport, trade and postal links), it has been a long march along a tortuous path. The march keeps going on toward the common goal that benefits people of both sides.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser who played a key role in normalizing U.S. relations with China in 1979, said this week on TV that he believes the Taiwan problem will be resolved by time. He told the Hongkong-based Phoenix TV in an interview that the two sides will be able to solve the problem in the future peacefully. His views, interestingly, are similar to that held by premier Sun 30 years ago.

The Polish-born scholar and statesman recalled that when he first visited Beijing for talks with Deng Xiaoping on normalization in the 1970s, Beijing had only 1,500 foreigners. Now there are more than 150,000. “China has changed so much that it is not the same,” he said, adding that China and the United States will be the world's two major players as well as its stakeholders. Brzezhinski, who will be incoming President Obama's foreign affairs adviser, believes that China's peaceful rise does not pose a threat to the rest of the world, America or Taiwan included.

He was, of course, viewing the world in a historical perspective. He made difficult and unpopular recommendations to President Carter, whose name once become a dirty word in Taiwan for his betrayal of Taiwan, a long-time ally. When Warren Christopher, Carter's deputy secretary of state, visited to Taiwan in 1979, he was greeted by eggs and potatoes from violent protesters at the Sungshan airport.

In retrospect, such emotional protests, like last month's violent demonstration against Chen Yunlin, were but blips in history. The tides of times are irresistible and unstoppable, washing away all that standing in the way.

Unless, of course, if you stop being shortsighted, and have the courage and wisdom to look forward, and put things in the focus of history.

So, let's resolve here highly, on the advent of the Year of the Ox, that we stop being shortsighted any more. We hope and believe that Taiwan is not short of great, visionary leaders.

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