As the anti-Chen campaign of former DPP Chairman and former Taiwan democracy activist Shih Ming-te gears up for protests to begin Sept 9 in Taipi, Shih's previous spokeswoman, Ho De-fen, was canned a couple of days ago What does this mean? Well, Ho understood that Shih's protest could not be seen as a pro-Blue campaign -- never mind that it essentially is -- she understood that it would discredit it completely if it became perceived as too obviously partisan or became heavily commercialized. The Taipei Times reported on the conflict between Ho and Jerry Fan, another spokesman (why does it need or have two?):
"Following the first "trial" protest on Friday night, the camp's spokeswoman Ho De-fen (賀德芬 ) yesterday shared her concern about the "commercialization" of the protest.Ho challenged another spokesman, Jerry Fan (
范可欽 ), over his ideas for the rally, including wearing red clothes to show anger and playing classical music during the protest.Fan yesterday defended his ideas and said they were the product of a collaborative effort by the camp's think tank, and not his alone."
With Ho, who had fought to make it a Blue/Green initiative, now out, the Blues are going to get more open about turning this into a pro-Blue campaign. Mark the exit of Ho as the point when the Shih campaign train left the tracks and veered into overt and eager pro-China/Blue partisanship.
One might also ask who is in the 'think tank' governing the campaign. Shih was/is the convener for the so-called Shanmeng, the "Mountain Alliance", a pro-unification think tank that also includes turncoats Hsu Hsin-liang and Sissy Chen. Hsu has his own protest going at the same time as Shih's.
In case anyone has forgotten, this is not the first time that the Blues have gone after Chen using public protests as their weapon, nor is it the first time that Chen was attacked by fellow DPPers over a protest issue. When Chen was mayor of Taipei he went after the city's enormous prostitution complex, shutting down brothels by the score and forcing many to move out to more congenial places in the 'burbs. He also yanked the licenses for the few legal prostitutes in the city, and the response was a series of protests that were well-organized and went on for more than a year and half -- protests even the local sex workers on whose behalf they were conducted saw as suspiciouly political:
"The conflict between government and city council deepened with every month the closer the year-end elections for the Taipei city mayor came. In the City Council many KMT (Nationalist Party, Kuomintang) councillors but also DPP members fought against Chen Shui-pien and DPP members loyal to him, so the problem did not seem to be so much the question of the women’s welfare but rather a political struggle between the two opposing parties. Finally, in the mayoral elections Chen Chui-pien was defeated in favour of the KMT’s member Ma Ying-jiou who promised to grant the two-year grace period once he took up office. However, the DPP — in the role of the opposition party and voted out of power only four years after they had gained one of the most important posts for the first time in their history — started to retaliate and hamper the announcement with threats and delay tactics. It took until January 25, 1999 before Ma was able to reinstall proper legal procedure and proclaim the installation of the two-year grace period."
Laurie Underwood at Asia Times had this to say on the issue in 1998:
"This was no ordinary protest. For one thing it was suspiciously well-organized and media-savvy. Indeed, Chen insists few of the protesters were actually prostitutes. "Licensed prostitutes are not well-educated. How can they can create those slogans?" he asks. "They claim their financial situation is not good. How can they afford to carry on these protests month after month?" According to Chen and his backers, this is not about prostitution but about wrecking his political career -- not an idle charge from a man many expect to unseat the Kuomintang in presidential polls two years hence."
And impeachment is not new either. Remember this threat?:
"Councilors say Chen has created all the trouble for himself by being stubborn on the issue of legal prostitution. "Mayor Chen is acting as a dictator, with no sense of humanity," says council speaker Chen Chien-Chih of the KMT. "The council needs to protect underprivileged groups." He says the council reinstated licensed prostitution to allow the women time to pay off debts and prepare for mainstream vocations. "How can we ask them to suddenly go from making $5,000 a month to $1,000 a month," he asks. If the mayor does not formally recognize the new law within a one-month grace period, the council will try to get him impeached.
It's always the same KMT game -- make wild and insane accusations against Chen (he's a dictator, he had himself shot), demand that he be impeached, forment public protests. These tactics work because they do not require anything concrete -- just willing tools like Shih Ming-te or city prostitutes, and a complacent media with no sense of history, little restraint, no interest in serious investigative work, and a profound pro-Blue bias.
[Taiwan] [Chen Shui-bian] [Democracy] [DPP] [KMT] [Taipei]
3 comments:
I asked about the Taiwan courts before. Maybe you answered my question, but I didn't see it. When I bring up to my Taiwanese husband that CSB hasn't been brought before the courts because of lack of evidence- his reply is that the investigative/ judical branch of government is corrupt too, and in CSB's pocket. When I mention that people close to him are being charged, his reply is that it's just for show. Is there any truth to what my husband says about the investigative/judicial branch? This is key- so I hope you can address it to the best of your ability in your blog- or refer me to the link where you have already addressed it. THX
I already answered it, but essentially, the courts, police, and prosecutors are widely pro-Blue, and there's no way they would let anything Chen did get by (and do you know a prosecutor who would let political corruption slide?). Few of the current judges are Chen appointments. Shit, do you think his wife was questioned "for show?" If Chen really had the prosecutors in his pocket, it would be a simple matter to stop the investigations. But the fact is that they continue. Further, if the prosecutorial arm was really in Chen's pocket, he'd have destroyed the KMT by now with the Lafayette scandal. But the slow progress in both cases indicates that prosecutors are doing the steady job of building a case, as they are supposed to do.
There's no way to reason with your husband because he cannot be convinced by evidence; as Mark Twain said, you can't reason people out of what they haven't been reasoned into. He's decided to believe that reality isn't what the evidence says, like a religious faith. Once a person has gone down that road of believing without evidence, nothing can bring them back except for the decision to give up the delusion and believe what the evidence says. For example, even if you had conclusive proof that the courts were fair, your husband could still say that you were deluded. There's no way to convince people who have decided they will believe no matter what the evidence. You just have to keep politely hitting them with facts, and wait patiently for them to come around to reality again.
Michael
He gets all his info from the World Journal. Besides the internet sites, is there another US newspaper written in Chinese that is more impartial in its coverage? My husband isn't a diehard KMT guy. He wants Taiwan to be independent. He says that because of what the Taiwanese went through with the Japanese and ChiangKai-Shek, they are more prodemocracy /anti-CCP than HKers who had the relatively more benevolent British controlling them. If a person came out with a lot of credibility with the average Taiwanese and said what you did, my husband would believe then. What's happened, though, is that a person of high credibility has come out to say the opposite- and so they go to sit.
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