Cries of "Wolf!" heard all over Taiwan

Doin' my bes' to round up the mess

I have had neither the time nor the energy to write a post with as many links as I'd like, so bear with me as I round up some recent events that are on my mind and add comments before they get drowned out by newer events. I hope to add more links as I find them.

Who "raised the specter" of "martial law"?
On November 22, 2007, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), spouting nonsense in her usual style, said that Taiwan's democratically-elected president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would use the 18 pan-blue-led counties' refusal to follow the Central Election Commission's single-step ballot distribution procedure as an excuse to "declare martial law." Talking Show (大話新聞) subsequently discussed whether Chen would use it or not. Days later, Chen said that people had made several suggestions about how to deal with the situation and that he would examine all possibilities.

Then came the veritable torrent of BS.

All of the "news" media in Taiwan, including the Taipei Times, twisted Chen's words to make it look like Chen had threatened to impose martial law when he had done no such thing. The English-language China Post had it on their front page -- surprisingly with a less sensational headline than the Taipei Times.

Subsequent to the fallacious reports, President Chen reassured the public that he would not declare martial law (WMV files; see the beginning of Part 5), but by that time, the distortion machine had done the dastardly deed, and far too many felt that they were obligated to admonish Chen -- all for something he hadn't done.

Rule Number 1: Remember the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," and if the allegation looks as implausible as this one did, go with your instincts, and don't repeat the accusation until you see the evidence with your own eyes, hear it with your own ears, and feel it with your own fingers. And even then, you might want to think twice.

Don't put one iota of trust in the KMT
The KMT recently aired a mostly black-and-white commercial featuring several people who expressed extreme disgust with the DPP government. The people in the commercial were portrayed as being "poor average citizens," but if you remember Rule Number 1 above, you would have had the same suspicions as I did: that none of these people was "an average Chou." The ad ends with the incredibly ironic warning: "Don't trust the DPP."

It didn't take long for my suspicions to be verified. As of November 5, 2007, it has been discovered that at least five of the people appearing in the 30-second commercial are, in fact, KMT workers. While some of them do indeed do the jobs they claim in the commercial to do, at least one who portrayed himself as a low-salaried employee (侯先生, or Mr. Hou) was discovered to be the boss. Breakfast-store owner Fang Hua-hsiung (方華雄 ) claimed he would "go broke and die," yet his business was bustling. Another of the commercial's crybabies who worried about "not being able to survive" is still driving his Benz seven years into a DPP presidency. The humanity!

Rule Number 2: When somebody with a Benz cries about "not being able to survive," what they mean is that even if everybody in Taiwan could have a free mid-price-range vehicle, he'd still cry about it for as long as there was a DPP president.

Proposed 228 law
A bill seeking justice for the infamous "228 Massacre" of 1947 that was brought up by the DPP several months ago and subsequently squashed by the opposition was suddenly front-page news a few days ago. The headlines practically screeched that the DPP sought to hold even distant relatives of those accused of crimes related to 228 to be held accountable for the crimes if the accused was deceased (or perhaps even if not). Again, even the Taipei Times did the wrong thing with this one.

Refer to Rule Number 1 again. What those front-page headlines said was the exact opposite of the truth.

The bill was written with a spirit of reconciliation in mind (something the KMT seems to know nothing about), and gave these relatives the right to defend the names of their relatives. I'm not sure if it requested their assistance in bringing facts to light, but it most certainly did not seek to punish them.

He's not a cop, but he played one on TV
Just two days ago (Dec. 5), a young man wearing a fake police uniform wa grabbed by authentic police during protests outside of the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall by people opposed to the removal of the 大中至正 inscription at the entrance to the plaza. As he was being moved by the police, the faker screeched in a manner similar to the actors in the 這個不是肯得雞 ("This isn't KFC!") commercials [KFC1, KFC2, KFC3] that he "didn't know" (something). A reporter who was befuddled by the overreaction asked if he was drunk, and he replied with something that was bleeped when aired on the news. However, the reporting -- even by FTV -- highlighted one police officer who was seen briefly pulling the suspect's hair as that officer and several of his colleagues attempted to remove the suspect from the scene. That was certainly not good behavior on the cop's part, but the crying seemed rather disproportionate.

And, as usual, there's more to the story than meets the eye at first glance.

Tests showed that the suspect was indeed drunk. Oh, and his father, Lee Yung-ran (李永然) (variously written as Lee Yung-jan and Y.R. Lee), is a lawyer employed by the KMT.

(I hope it's only "attempted-")
Murder or manslaughter
On Thursday, Peng Sheng-lu (彭盛露), the driver of a mid-sized blue truck (Taiwan-style pickup) rammed his vehicle into several media workers shooting video near a campaign truck belonging to the pan-green Taiwan Independence Party (TIP, 建國黨). The truck ran completely over an ETTV cameraman (UPDATE: His name is Wang Jui-chang [王瑞璋]), leaving a messy trail of blood and injuring the man very seriously. Police quickly extracted the driver, and people at the scene used their bare hands to turn the vehicle on its side and get the victim out.

What do you think the driver said when the cameras were focused on him and the police had him firmly in their grip? "I didn't mean it!" Reviewing video footage of the event, it appears that he did it on purpose. Oh, and he turns out to have been an employee of Mei Feng (梅峰), who styles himself a candidate for the "China legislature" in the upcoming election. And ETTV anchor Lu Hsiu-fang (盧秀芳) (sister of KMT legislator Lu Hsiu-yan [盧秀燕] and daughter-in-law of former vice-premier Hsu Li-teh [徐立德]) editorialized in her newscast that it was all the DPP's fault. SET reported late Thursday night that it looked like the suspect would be charged with attempted murder. For the sake of the cameraman, let's hope that charge doesn't become something even worse, but if it does (hell, even if it doesn't), let's hope they prosecute aggressively but not excessively.

The KMT school of violent crybabies
There is actually a school that teaches the following typical pan-blue behaviors: 1) Make shit up and/or do something violent; 2) If caught red-handed, squeal loudly like a stuck pig and say you didn't know/you didn't mean it/you're being abused/that it's martial law all over again/that the DPP is fomenting ethnic hatred; 3) Sit back, and let the pan-blue media do the rest; 4) If things go really badly, and you somehow end up being sentenced to hard time, somebody will arrange for you to escape and flee to China, where your red-handed deeds will be considered heroic.

I've seen this school with my own eyes, and so can you. All you have to do is turn on your TV and watch just about any channel at just about any time. Or pick up just about any of the newspapers you see outside of Taiwan's many convenience stores. Just be careful not to slip and fall into their ubiquitous traps.

Whatever you do, "Question everything -- especially this!"

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Several species of small, furry animals, gathered together in an island nation and grooving with their tricks: Taiwan, 台灣, Chinese Nationalist Party, 中國國民黨, Kuomintang, KMT, pan-blues, 泛藍, media, 媒體, China Post, 英文中國郵報, Taipei Times, 台北時報

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Taiwan's opposition kidnaps political discourse

A hissy fit a day keeps democracy at bay
Just yesterday I compared the tendency of the opposition in Taiwan to throw hissy fits with the same tendency in the Republicans in the US. Both take constant advantage of the media to "catapult the propaganda" and avoid real discourse.

This silly image from the front page of Saturday's Taipei Times beautifully illustrates the hissy fits of Taiwan's opposition:


Somebody call the waaaaambulance!
(Click image to view full size.)
The large text across the middle of the picture reads "Referendum kidnaps the election." The pan-blues think that people are too stupid to know how to vote if they pick up all their ballots at once -- or at least that's what they say. I think the truth is that they're afraid that if the election is held in a fully democratic way -- that is, where thugs who are outside of the polling station watching who picks up their ballots can't see what voters are doing -- they'll certainly lose. The referendum to allow the public to show their approval for applying for UN membership using the name "Taiwan" will win, and any remaining credibility the pan-blues' grip on the media has allowed them to maintain will vanish like vapors do when fresh air is allowed to pass through a previously-stagnant space.

The above photo, by the way, accompanied an article informing readers that the Central Election Commission (CEC) delayed their announcement as to whether ballots will be distributed all at once or with separate steps for the referendum ballots and presidential ballots. Hidden by all the squealing going on are the DPP's "stolen assets" referendum and the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) "anti-corruption" one which the article tells us "aims to give the legislature the power to investigate allegations of corruption against the president and subordinates." Mixing the legislative and judicial branches of government contradicts what I learned in Civics class about "separation of powers" in a democracy.

Quiet riot? Don't deny it!
Chao Shu-chien (趙叔鍵), a CEC member recommended by the People First Party, is paraphrased in the article as saying that "distributing the ballots together could spark a riot." He is directly quoted as saying that "If no serious problems occurred last time when the ballots were issued separately, why should we change it?" The piece of the puzzle without which we can't see the truth of the matter is that the opponents of the method used in the previous referendum (that would be the pan-greens) are generally non-violent, while the opponents of the proposed method of giving ballots all at once (that would be the violent pan-blues) threaten violence at just about every turn. (Please follow that link if you have any doubts.)

Vote these bastards out of office soon, please, so we can get beyond this medieval madness!

FURTHER READING:
* February 26, 2004: An editorial in the Taiwan News reminds us that James Soong (宋楚瑜) once said that the "complexities" of collecting and casting three ballots will inevitably spark election conflicts and "riots." (Sound familiar? Didn't they riot anyway?)
* It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy! December 18, 2004: A LAUNDRY LIST OF PAN-BLUE VIOLENCE
* It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy! November 9, 2005: Topsy-turvy Taiwan

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Tangents along a circle: Taiwan, 台灣, United Nations, 聯合國, Chinese Nationalist Party, 中國國民黨, Kuomintang, KMT, 國民黨, People First Party, 親民黨, pan-blues, 泛藍, pan-greens, 泛綠, referendum, 公投

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Miss Fu（福小姐）And Hearsay

Update (8/18/07): Tim Maddog pointed out that I associated "Miss Fu" with a wrong event. I have made some corrections. The point that I wanted to make before the correction remains. Thx a lot, Tim. I apologize for mixing up "Miss Fu" and "Little Nurse" (see below). But maybe I deserve a pardon -- pan-bluers have practiced "evidence cooking" on every chance they got. It's hard for me to keep track of their shows.

Thomas Huang, a Junior Physics & Political Science major in Iowa, posted some comments on Michael's blog article Ma: Acquitted.

In response to his comments, I have some of my own that seems to get too long for a comment. So I put them here. I'll invite Thomas over for further interactions.

Thomas: A deep-green Taiwanese poli-sci professor I knew, who was President Chen's close adviser, once said to me that Ma's case is indeed kind of a revenge from the DPP, whose President Chen was troubled by corruption charges initiated by blue politicians.

This is not a convincing way of establishing an arguments. Thomas is trying to give his arguments based on an extremely damaging hearsay that is not verifiable. It is not different from spreading a rumor.

If you watch Taiwan politics for some time, you would have found that it is the way pan-blue commonly used to launch their attacks. For example, in the infamous Ear-Licking Scandal (舔耳案，then PFP whip Diane Lee ^[x]Li Chin-An (李慶安) vs. the acting director-general of the Department of Health (DOH) Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲)) in 2002. Li set up a press conference to introduce a senior schoolmate of Twu's who claimed to be with Twu and witnessed Twu when the so-called sex scandal happened. It later turned out that there wasn't such a schoolmate of Twu's and the entire witness show was a setup by Li just to incriminate Twu.

Another example happened on March 19, 2004, after two bullets were fired at DPP presidential candidate pair Chen and Lu during their campaign. Sisy Chen (陳文茜, an advisor to KMT's president candidate Lien-Chan)^[x]Sissy Chen (KMT's campaign manager, I believe) held a press conference, in which ^[x]she presented a "witness", Miss Fu (福小姐), a self-claimed nurse saying that she saw how Chen's people faked the event in the hospital where Chen was treated for his gunshot wound. Of course the nurse was "anonymous" and her face covered such that nothing of this person and her words is verifiable. After the conference she was no where to be found when the investigation started. she said (ref,ref) that an "anonymous nurse" had seen Chen's people faked the event and the doctors in the hospital tampered the medical records to conspire with Chen's story. The "anonymous nurse" never showed up, and the accusation of conspiracy was quickly dismissed by the hospital.

Not long after the "Little Nurse in Chi-Mei" show, pan-blue's legislator Chou Hsi-Wei(周錫瑋) put up another one. Another anonymous witness, Miss Fu (福小姐), with her face half-covered and unrecognizable, was introduced in Chou's press conference to claim that she has a video proving that the 319 shooting was a conspiracy. Her accusation was later dismissed by forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee(李昌鈺博士).

Since then the term "Little Nurse" (小護士) or "Little Nurse in Chi-Mei" (奇美小護士; "Chi-Mei" is the name of the hospital), as well as "Miss Fu" (福小姐) have become the symbols of pan-blue's imaginary witness or cooked up evidence.^[x]Since then the term "Miss Fu" has become a symbol for describing the way pan-blue cooks up evidence. If you visit pan-green forums and mention these terms, every frequent poster knows what you are talking about.

More examples can be drawn from those so-called-scandal exposing press conferences held by pan-blue's legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅). Most of his accusations on so-called DPP scandals are base-less, unverifiable hearsay that was cooked up by you-know-whom. If there's a chance for these accusations to go to the court of law, the so-called witness or evidence will be either no where to be found or discarded by the court. I believe deep down Chu Yi knows that, and that's why he held press conferences before the investigation such that by the time the investigation starts, the public is already brainwashed by his false accusations. As I pointed out last year ([0606] Society-breaking conspiracy in Taiwan and here), this is the formula pan-blue follows to paralyze the society:

(pan-bluers)... exaggerating the suspicions, adding up all circumstantial evidences and making it look guilty. This process provokes the public. Then, a looked-guilty, people-outraged case is investigated. If it ends up with not-guilty charges, Chiu then has the outraged people to support him to ramp the court.

If he goes legal way, all those circumstantial suspicions will have no chance to be manipulated. Only by provoking public first, by which he can tag those suspicions with his own judgement, can he turn doubts into something more.

You can easily spot this pattern on almost every attempt pan-blue work their way to attack pan-green.

I am not saying that Thomas intended to spread cooked-up information to pollute the society like that. Obviously I have no way to determine that, for one thing the story is not verifiable. It's just that this sort of hearsay won't help on building any solid argument, and certainly will hurt your credibility seriously, especially when it becomes a routine --- in another comment on the same page, Thomas did it again:

Thomas: Earlier, a high-rank official from the Clinton administration told me that he once tried to help the two sides negotiate a treaty of "maintaining the status-quo." Contrary to public perception of greedy Communists, Beijing was very interested in the plan and agreed that Taiwan can be given more room of international visibility under the treaty (even participation in WHO and UN, etc). President Chen, on the contrary, was lukewarm about the idea. To him the NAME of independence matters more because of elections. So in some cases, the more you fight, the less you get.

The way Thomas described both stories bears the similar characteristics of 福小姐:

(1) Authority - came directly from top or whom close to the power center;
(2) Covert - secrets you can hear from nowhere but me;
(3) Damaging - so damaging such that it renders the target defenseless;
(4) Non-traceable - readers have no way to verify its credibility.

This kind of "hearsay spreading"^[x]opinion expression has huge negative impact on the society. It is a fortune that most Taiwan-politics-related English blog articles are free of this sort of hearsay-spreading style talking. But if you visit some Taiwan forums (in Chinese language) long enough, you can spot these sort of hearsay frequently. People grow up in that environment would certainly pick up those "hobbies". But that doesn't justify the act. IMO, whoever intends to put up such an "unverifiable hearsay" should assume responsibility and think more on what kind of negative impact those hearsay could bring to the society.

I applaud "A Bit about My Viewpoints" on the front page of Thomas' blog:

Just like Beijing's cornering Taiwan only alienates people from their already dwindling tie with China, unfair or unfounded criticism to the PRC also helps it justify its isolation of Chinese people from outside.

My studies tell me that engagement always works more effectively than containment; peaceful penetration always works more efficiently than armed confrontation (haven't you had enough for Iraq?) - and less costly.
Listen carefully, watch thoughtfully, and speak reasonably; back up a little bit, calm down, and things will work much better...

I also welcome Thomas' attempt for interactions. Unlike most participants in the circle of Taiwan-politics-related English blogs (should we come up with a term like TPREB?), Thomas seems to represent more on the pro-china side of Taiwan political spectrum. The interactions Thomas initiated are much needed for healing and mutual understanding and will contribute significantly to the future of Taiwan. But it will achieve nothing if we turn the interactions into "hearsay competitions."

Blatant propaganda from Beijing

This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs.
- American poet Amiri Baraka, purportedly writing about something completely different

There are some who call me... Nostra-Timmus?
In a post early Saturday morning, I "foresaw" the inevitable:

And don't forget, when you read that President Chen "survived a third recall attempt" in Saturday's papers, it means little more than he "walked on barely warm coals while wearing fireproof boots."

Lo and behold, a comment by Kerim Friedman (Keywords) led me to a reeking, (admittedly day-old), full rubbish bin from Jonathan Watts in Guardian Unlimited which ran under a red banner absurdly reading "Special Report China" and which bore a lede that was about as jam-packed with propaganda as it could possibly be:

The Taiwanese president survived with just one MP's support and his weakness could make him dangerous, writes Jonathan Watts

That's pretty base. How low can Watts go?
As I pointed out in my reply to Kerim, this Watts character is based in Beijing, and the propaganda that comes through his article couldn't be any thicker if his true love were to be found in the pockets of the Chinese Communist Party. That's four points of five-star propaganda -- just in the intro!

But, guess what. The propaganda does grow even thicker as Watts strokes it for every last gooey drop.

Put away your handkerchiefs, and get out your vomit bags
Here I've extracted just the propaganda -- and for the sake of your health, this is only from the first half of the article:

Pyrrhic victories ... painful ... humiliating distinction ... support of only one member ...

Bruised, unpopular and outmanoeuvred ... increasingly wobbly - and possibly dangerous ...

[...]

... Mr Chen can take no comfort in the manner of his survival. A majority of parliamentarians voted against him. ... Only one came out solidly on the side of the president with a "no" vote.

... a new low point for Mr Chen ... calamitous year ... his wife charged with corruption, his approval rating slip below 20% and many of his most powerful overseas supporters in the US turn their backs on him.

It is a far cry from 2000 ... Hopes were high then that he would end the corrupt practices of the previous Kuomintang administration ...

There are actually six more paragraphs of this nonsense. (Go read the whole thing to see how little I actually removed from those early paragraphs, but be sure to rehydrate at some point along the way.)

There's simply too much in there to take it apart in detail, but if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know what's innuendo (indictment doesn't equal guilt, the charges are based on selective leaks by rather corrupt political opponents, the "questionable" receipts were supposedly used to account for funds spent on secret diplomatic missions, the Ministry of Audit said to use those receipts before they said not to, etc.), what's distortion (the low "approval rating" comes from polls done by pan-blue media outlets, the "majority" who voted to recall Chen was 100% partisan, 100 legislators either abstained from voting or purposely cast invalid ballots, there was a huge corruption conviction of a Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] legislator on Friday which has been several years in the making, etc.), and what are outright lies. (Could Watts name a single "powerful overseas supporter" who turned their back on Chen? "[D]angerous"? Get the fuck outta here!)

Just open up your eyes, and you'll see
Saturday's Taipei Times presents their editors' impression that Beijing is being "silent" on the Chen recall idiocy. They're obviously not looking in the right places. Despite the omission of "Beijing" in the dateline of Watts' piece, the "rhetoric with Chinese characteristics" is as plain as the nose on my face.

Watts' brighter side?
I have actually seen some writing by Watts that is somewhat critical of Beijing (which is probably difficult to do under the circumstances -- here's more of his writing), but it's abundantly clear that he shouldn't be writing about anything related to Taiwan, because the CCP leaders could hardly have done a better job smearing Chen Shui-bian.

Take Action!
Instead of keeping your feelings bottled up inside or going to your window and screaming "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" read Watts' article for yourself, draw your own conclusions, and only after doing so of your own volition, feel free to make use of the information below to verbally express your feelings. Also, try to be more polite than Watts was honest, as it won't be him with whom you're communicating.

Guardian Unlimited
userhelp@guardian.co.uk
119 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3ER
United Kingdom
PHONE: 020-7278 2332

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Props: Taiwan, 台灣, China, 中國, People's Republic of China, 中華人民公和國, PRC, 中共, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, pan-blues, 泛藍, 特支費, Her Jyh-huei, 何智輝, recall, 罷免, propaganda, 宣傳

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Third attempt to recall Taiwan president Chen fails

On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'
- baseball coach Earl Weaver, ejected from more games than anyone in Major League history

Third time still unlucky
(or maybe it's got nothing to do with luck)
The third attempt in less than six months by Taiwan's opposition pan-blues to recall President Chen Shui-bian, purportedly due to allegations of corruption, has failed miserably. Only 118 legislators voted in favor of recalling Chen, once again falling way short of the 2/3 required for the motion to be put to a public referendum.

Ironically, one of those very people shouting the faux "anti-corruption" slogans in the Legislative Yuan Friday was sentenced the very same day to 19 years in prison for corruption, theft, and breach of trust in relation to amounts over NT$1 billion.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and former Miaoli County Commissioner Her Jyh-huei (何智輝) was convicted on charges related to a NT$1.1 billion loan obtained by using land valued at NT$100 million as collateral. Not so long ago, Her had fled to China to avoid being investigated (he returned in order to form the unconstitutional, kangaroo-court-like "319 Truth Commission" [MORE: 1, 2]), and in an apparent attempt to influence the outcome of his case, registered to become a member of the Legislative Yuan's Judiciary Committee (司法委員會). As recently as 2004, the beleaguered Taipei mayor/KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, currently under investigation for abuse of his "special allowance fund," supported Her's candidacy when running for legislative office, calling him "honest and simple" (淳樸). Birds of a feather and all that.

Third time, still not charmed
According to an article by the AP's Peter Enav in Guardian Unlimited, "lawmakers from Chen's Democratic Progressive Party did not participate in the poll [and] 12 members of the Taiwan Solidarity Union - a DPP ally - deliberately spoiled their ballots" this time. Note the clear partisan lines in addition to Her's conviction on much more serious charges, and you will see that the recall attempts have absolutely nothing to do with opposing corruption.

Give up!
Even though the first attempt came up with 119 votes in favor of the recall, and the second time around only got 116 votes, Chen's stubborn sore-loser opponents just don't know when to throw in the towel. The third attempt got only two more than the second attempt but one vote fewer than the first try, yet the pan-blues are already saying that they want to go for four-in-a-row. Remember, they need 28 more votes than they got this time in order for the motion to pass, and then it has to be put to a public referendum.

Enough, already! Even after 2 months of organized street protests, there is no general support for the anti-Chen crowd's anti-democratic efforts. The pan-blue legislators are also wasting millions, if not billions, of Taiwanese taxpayer dollars by dilly-dallying around in the Legislative Yuan with this nonsense instead of passing legislation to move Taiwan's democracy forward and keep it safe from China's threats.

And don't forget, when you read that President Chen "survived a third recall attempt" in Saturday's papers, it means little more than he "walked on barely warm coals while wearing fireproof boots."

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Things to remember: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, Kuomintang, 中國國民黨, KMT, 國民黨, pan-blues, 泛藍, recall, 罷免, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, special allowance fund, 特支費, Her Jyh-huei, 何智輝, Judiciary Committee, 司法委員會, propaganda, 宣傳, corruption, 貪污

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Voters of Taipei: recall Ma Ying-jeou

Time for him to take some responsibility

Our pal STOP_Ma (AKA STOP_George), who's been fighting the good fight on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, has created an online petition seeking the resignation of Taipei City mayor and KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou to take responsibility for failing to protect the law-abiding citizens of Taiwan's capital city from the mess brought about by the persistent lawless behavior of Shih Ming-teh's Red-Ant Army. The redshirted mob has been on the streets of Taipei for over a month (in many cases and locations, without the proper permits) screeching that they want to depose Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's democratically-elected president, despite the fact that Chen hasn't been indicted on even a single charge. Tuesday night, Shih made threatening statements against the prosecutor who's investigating President Chen, saying that he'd better return a result which satisfies him and the redshirts. If he doesn't, Shih says that he and his crazies will surround the Judicial Yuan "in order to uphold an independent judiciary." (That's what he said!) Even if the result is to the liking of the crazies, they'll surround the Executive Yuan (Premier Su Tseng-chang's [蘇貞昌] branch) and the DPP central headquarters -- unless the DPP votes to recall the president.

That's not democracy -- it's mob rule! And if you think that kind of "justice" is anywhere near "independent," then I'm Ma Ying-jeou's grandmother!

Time for Mr. Rule-of-law to stop paying lip service to the law
"Chairman Mao-without-the-O" has previously insisted that the law must be followed (in certain cases only?), yet on Tuesday, when the nation's dignity and the safety of foreign dignitaries was at stake, he decided that the law was "flexib[le]." Wednesday night, Ma said that he's giving the redshirts another three weeks to run amok. [See UPDATE below]

No wonder he failed the bar exam.

See for yourself
Here's some video from Tuesday night's FTV English Edition which STOP_Ma kindly uploaded to YouTube.



10'12" YouTube video: "Resign, Mayor Ma Ying-jeou!"
Click "Play" at lower left to load the video here.
(I suggest hitting "Pause" until the video loads fully.)
Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Flash.
Click here for YouTube help.
Here's another video Michael Turton linked on his blog today which demonstrates the double standards of the redshirts/pan-blues surrounding the recent events. (Some Chinese-language ability required.)



1'36" YouTube video: "Double Standards - 2"
Now, go sign the petition and spread the word!

UPDATE: The report of Ma Ying-jeou giving the redshirts another three weeks may be incorrect. At the time I wrote that, they had originally held permits to hold two more weeks' worth of protests (October 14 - 27) on Ketagalan Boulevard (in front of Taiwan's Presidential Office), but those permits were subsequently revoked; however, redshirt organizer/spokesman Jerry Fan (范可欽) said they "would stay at the current site on the south plaza of Taipei Railway Station and continue protesting between 6pm and 10pm every night," according to the October 14 edition of the Taipei Times.

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Colors of the rainbow: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Kuomintang, 中國國民黨, KMT, 國民黨, Shih Ming-teh, 施明德, pan-blues, 泛藍, democracy, 民主

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!