Taiwan's Joe Lieberman quits DPP... finally!
What took you so long?!
Cut from the same mold?
Joe Lieberman (faux left) and Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄)
Was either one ever a real "Democrat"?
Thursday's Taipei Times does an excellent job of recapping the reasons why it's such a pleasure to see former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) exit the party. Here's a big chunk of the article which contains some great reminders:
Shen said there was no need for him to stay in the party now that "bad boys" within the DPP felt nothing about his outspokenness against them. He did not elaborate.Kudos to reporter Flora Wang for presenting us with all those juicy details!
"I am a good DPP member. People [in the party] just don't like me," he said.
[...]
Shen had been a member since 1992 when he ran for legislator under the party flag.
However, he was long considered a "loner" because of his outspokenness about the party's policies or other members with whom he disagreed.
He created a stir before the 2004 presidential poll when he gave credence to claims by tycoon-turned-fugitive Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) that the businessman had given a donation to first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) 10 years earlier.
Chen Yu-hao said Shen had been a witness to the transaction.
Shen's unwillingness to contradict Chen Yu-hao's allegations threatened to derail President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election campaign in the week before the poll.
Shen has been sharply criticized ever since by pan-green supporters, who denounced him for being a DPP apostate and for making connections with pro-blue figures.
In April 2004, Shen urged pro-green politicians to stop using the phrase "love Taiwan" as an encapsulation of their pro-localization stance, saying the phrase was detrimental to ethnic harmony between the majority Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mainlanders who came to Taiwan after 1945.
In May this year, Shen suffered an embarrassing defeat in the party's legislative primary along with 10 other members of DPP's former New Tide faction.
As the last sentence of the article clearly indicates, the voters were the ones who didn't like Shen -- not just other DPP politicians. Note, too, that the party allowed him to run for a DPP seat instead of kicking him out. This probably hurt them in the short run, but letting him get out of his own accord, they'll hopefully have a bit more leverage in next January's legislative elections.
The last time I saw the Shen
I seem to remember Shen threatening not so long ago to (UPDATE: links down bottom) "say bad things about the DPP all across Taiwan" if they didn't give in to his demands -- as if he hadn't already been saying such things for a long time. The last time I recall seeing Shen (I took a screenshot at the time) was in the same place he'd been appearing for a good while already -- alongside Little Bo Peep cosplayer Sisy Chen (陳文茜) on her 「文茜小妹大」 ("Sisy Chen, Gangster Gal"), a veritable fiesta of feces-flinging.
June 23, 2007
Left to right: Hsu Hsing-liang (許信良), Tang Hsiang-lung (唐湘龍), (unidentified), Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), (unidentified), and Sisy Chen (陳文茜)
I'm lookin' for clues...
Notice the people with whom Shen yucks it up in the above image. He carries on with this bunch as if they were old Double-O colleagues in espionage.
Well, aren't they? Sisy Chen and Hsu Hsin-liang both left the DPP long ago and took up with the deep blues not so long thereafter. Tang Hsiang-lung is the creator of the 一高二低 ("DPP supporters are old, low-class, and uneducated") meme frequently used by enemy media and is one of the hosts of the ETTV smear-fest 新聞龍鳳配 ("Dragon and Phoenix").
Also notice the "poll" about the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential ticket of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) in the lower portion of the screen. Did 18,791 people really call in, or are those just more faked numbers? Oh, and the station is CTiTV (中天新聞), where the "C" stands for "China."
RELATED LINKS:
* Try not to get dizzy as you watch how the China Post views Shen's statements about the first lady through some kind of "Alien Skin" filter.
* Here's a post I wrote in 2004 (shortly before the article linked above came out) which mentions a certain "traitor in [the DPP's] midst."
* Here's another post of mine -- this one from 2006 -- helping Shen answer "What have [I] done to deserve this?" (Go see who Shen was collaborating with and learn precisely why saying "love Taiwan" hurts him so.)
* Here's a post I wrote the day after the one above about Shen running to the mendacious China Times (中國時報) for help.
* Thursday's China Post interprets Shen's departure with their usual spin.
* As usual, there are many more links within each of my own posts linked above.
UPDATE: Shen's appearance on Sisy Chen's show was just a few days before his threat against the DPP. Here are some related links:
** 民进党大佬沈富雄警告：将走遍全台批判民进党 (My translation: "DPP elder Shen Fu-hsiung: I'll criticize the DPP all across Taiwan")
** Here's a news report (WMV file), via FTV and TaiwanUS.net.
** Here's a letter to the editor about Shen's statement (Mandarin) in the June 30, 2007 edition of the Liberty Times (自由時報) by a Tunghai University graduate student of political science. [/end update]
Which side was Shen supposedly on again? Feh! Good riddance to him!
Classifications: Taiwan, 台灣, Democratic Progressive Party, 民主進步黨, DPP, 民進黨, Shen Fu-hsiung, 沈富雄, Chen Wen-qian, Sisy Chen, 陳文茜, China Post, 英文中國郵報, China Times, 中國時報
Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!
Labels: China Post, China Times, Democratic Progressive Party, DPP, Shen Fu-hsiung, Sisy Chen, Taiwan, Tim Maddog, 中國時報, 台灣, 民主進步黨, 民進黨, 沈富雄, 英文中國郵報, 陳文茜
posted Friday, October 05, 2007 @ 3:30 PM by Tim Maddog
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9 Comments:
Soon the DPP will leave no room for dissent. Glad you're happy that everyone must toe the party line, just like the CCP.
The issue isn't "toeing the party line" but a person calling himself a member of A but constantly supporting the policies and ideas of B in a way that undermines A. Like Lieberman. And Shen Fu-hsiung.
Michael
Nobody likes a snitch, but unless the guy is a warmonger pushing legislation that leads to a million deaths (as Joe Lieberman did with invading Iraq and is currently in the process of doing to Iran), it's a ridiculous comparison.
A "snitch"?
Mark, you're completely correct about Lieberman's actions having had greater consequences (so far), but let's not be so shortsighted.
The point you seem to be missing is that my comparison of Shen Fu-hsiung and Joe Lieberman has more to do with the obvious insincerity of each with regard to their presence in their former parties. Compare the Bush-Lieberman kiss and Lieberman's appearances on FOX News, for example, to Shen's relationship with staunch pro-unificationist Jaw Shaw-kong, his appearances on Sisy Chen's TV shows, and his running to the China Times for help to "defend" him from the DPP.
As I suggested in my response to your comment on Ralph Jennings, follow some links before deciding what's "ridiculous." If you follow only one, I'd suggest the link labeled "What have [I] done to deserve this?" (Be forewarned: You may have to follow more links there, but the evidence is all laid out for you.)
Channing, you're being completely disingenuous yet again.
Going against "your" party the way Shen did cannot be described as mere "dissent." Furthermore, you may have noticed that the DPP didn't kick him out.
Tim Maddog
Of course, dissent against the greens is always disingenuous, backwards and illogical, especially in these circles. Only the DPP can be correct in the fantasyland of pan-green "localization." I'm not saying the DPP kicked him out--I'm only poking at your opportunistic glee at his departure, much like the glee that I might see around here if someone tried to assassinate him or any other anti-green figure.
I'm only poking at your opportunistic glee at his departure, much like the glee that I might see around here if someone tried to assassinate him or any other anti-green figure.
That's just ridiculous. My respect for you just plummeted. In fact numerous authoritarians were targets of assassination attempts over the years, but though that has been discussed here and on my blog, no one has ever expressed "glee."
And yes, quite a lot of people are happy that Shen, who switched sides a long time ago, is finally gone from the pro-democracy side.
Michael
Believe me, I don't think you had much for me to begin with. I'm not pro-green, after all =) Pry too deep into a closed mind and it blows up in a fury of righteousness.
I'm flattered; people are finally coming after me!
Yes, that's right Channing. I joined the Peace Corps, speak 5 languages, married a foreigner, had mixed kids, live in a foreign country, cook in many different styles, entered two PHD programs in totally unrelated fields, taught at every level of the school system in three different countries, and have friends from all over the world....
...because I'm close minded.
Michael
I read that Tim had some love for me, too--much appreciated. To quote from a child's dictionary, "He started calling me names first."
I still don't quite understand the phrase "leaving the pro-democracy side." Is Shen planning to join the KMT, and is the KMT planning to stop direct elections in Taiwan, or is it planning immediate reunification and the readoption of a one-party state?
Or is it just lacking the words "Taiwan" or "Democratic" in its party name?
Or is it the "party assets"? In this case, it's got way more than it should, as well as in business dealings. Kind of like the Republican Party of the US...that's right, they're not democratic.
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