My wife drives up to our house on her motorcycle, and to her undying joy, is greeted by a campaign worker dressed in the regalia of our local DPP legislative candidate. Our neighborhood is getting blitzed almost daily with literature from the local KMT candidate, but we haven't seen anything from the DPP. The worker hands her some literature and asks:"So, are you voting for the DPP on Saturday?"
"Of course! Thanks so much for the pamphlets!"
"So how come you're not voting for the KMT? They have good people too, you know."
That threw my wife for a loop, but she came back strong. "If they are good people, how come they're in the KMT?"
"You should vote KMT, don't you think the DPP has messed everything up?"
"The legislature was messed up by the KMT, not the DPP."
"A-ya." The worker exclaimed. "The DPP has ruled long enough. It's time to give the KMT a chance."
" Why should I give them another chance to hurt Taiwan even more? They're going to sell us out. Do you want to be part of China?"
"Why not? What's wrong with that?"
At this point my wife gave up and went in the house. Lots of dirty tricks this year. Tricks like this also show how, by canvassing in this manner, the KMT can find out the political affiliations of local voters.
[Taiwan]
That's just sick, Michael. I wish these stories could get out to a greater international audience!
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I have never been able to figure out with the random KMT supporter is to what degree they would actually want to be a part of the whole of China and to what degree they are paying lip service to being a part of China just to indicate that they prefer that Taiwan hold onto its past and simply remain the ROC. Does this campaign worker really have a love for the PRC as well as the ROC combined, or does he/she simply have a love of the concept of "China" and would not really sell the country out? They would just not want to be called Taiwan or give up any of their privileges accrued through the last 60 years.
ReplyDeleteThis crosses my mind because I often wonder to what degree the buddy-buddy relations between the KMT and the CCP would continue if the KMT thought it was master of its own house in Taiwan.
So asking a KMT supporter if they would like to be a part of China might actually set off two different thought processes in their minds: 1) Glorification of being part of what is across the water 2) Simple dislike of the DPP and losing influence.
Michael Turton, you censor! Why don't you post my comments? Your wife is stupid and you are ugly. Good match! Haha...
ReplyDeleteThe conversation is a kind of pattern in Taiwan daily life. Whenever I met people who are willing to unite with China, I don't have any choice but to give up discussion with them just like your wife.
ReplyDeleteThe election is not DPP VS. KMT but Taiwan VS. China. We should give Taiwan a chance.
I hate A-Bien because of corruption. But KMT, they are not eligible to give any chance for corruption.
Hopefully, you could understand what I want to state.
Talk about dirty tricks!
ReplyDeleteTim Maddog
incredible! i wonder if this tactic is being used here in America...
ReplyDeleteI'm going back to Taiwan in a week, for a week. Love to see Taipei during election season.
thanks for sharing!
So dirty!
ReplyDeletebait & switch...the age old way to move a product when its not worth buying..
ReplyDeleteYou're serious?
ReplyDeleteA new low...but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But, even for the KMT, I wouldn't think they'd be that blatantly obvious about their extreme paranoia of the KMT and want to sabotage the election.
Ha! You're blacklisted now! They know where you live too! ;)
ReplyDeleteJust like an episode of the Sopranos...
ReplyDeletehere's how the conversation should have gone:
ReplyDelete""So, are you voting for the DPP on Saturday?""
"none of your business"
zyzyx --
ReplyDeleteI can't post comments containing legally actionable material, such as personal attacks and insults. Also, you'd have a better chance of being posted here if you said something intelligent that made a contribution.
Michael
"If they are good people, how come they're in the KMT?"
ReplyDeleteHeh heh heh heh. Your wife rocks.
Sorry for your wife’s encounter. However, this would be a very civilized version of KMT dirty tricks from a historical perspective. Let’s use this example to cherish how much we (Taiwan) have progressed. Let’s also use the same example to remind us how much more we have to do.
ReplyDeleteI think some of them like the idea of being part of China in terms of being big and powerful. They have ingrained in their brains the whole "we were abused by the West" kind of victim mentality, which actually cripples them and makes them easy bait. They tend to forget who were the ones who sold them into slavery. they forget their own role in their downfall.
ReplyDeleteI met some old blues who are descendants of the old warlords. Seems to me they could not easily forget being royalty, and having say over life and death in their lands -like gamonales in Latin America. Hence, in China, with enough money, they can still rule. Here, in Taiwan, they must play by the rules.
The phrase some of my coworkers use is "Taiwan has to learn who is boss". They complain about "people not wanting to be Chinese". That for them is a racial slur beacuse they have been personally taunted/discriminated for being Chinese -or so they say, and so they have developed a sort of this defensive complex.
I must clarify these are just very general theories of mine. I do not want to generalize, as I dislike the "all blues are prepotent" as much as the "all greens/southeners are idiots". I come from a place where your status is labeled based on your pedigree and skin color, and hence I really dislike -actually, I find it disgusting- this mix of race/politics/identity being abused by politicians of all shades.
Republican supporters do the same thing here in California. My roommate was questioned like so when he was polled upon exiting the station.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree with the comment about good people being in the KMT, though. That's the logical barrier between the green and blue and the root of almost all political strife in Taiwan: both define the "other side" as being evil by definition.
It is simply a trick made by some pro-KMT morons who self-righteously believe it works.
ReplyDeleteTypical KMT cheap tricks should be far more than that. They use teachers, bureaucratic system, police, and journalists as their “parrots” to cheat people. This may also give an answer to your wife’s question, “why do good people stay in the KMT?”
Good people may be cheated, too.
BTW, do not compromise with those insane KMT supporters. In case any further threat or insult, call police or Liberty Times/Apple Daily. Fight! We are all on your side. Take care.
Great post! I passed it on as well.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteI like what your wife said, even although it isn't really true.
(haha, I am being biased now -- by welcoming a not-so-true description...)
Just take a note:
Good people can be stupid, and often they are.
I guess that covers all bases, lol.
BTW I pass it over here:
國民黨派奸細假冒民進黨黨工?