Radio Free Taiwan

I have an A-bian key on my too-heavy keychain. I often wear an A-bain touque, and have never drawn a comment on it from a local. A-bian is the nickname of Taiwan’s president, in case you don’t realize this. Let me see if I can find a photo of an A-bian doll.

You get the idea. Young. Hip. Lawyer. A-bian. People don’t buy it much anymore though. I still think it’s cool, of course. Once it’s retro, I’ll bring even more A-bian paraphernalia into my life.


And here is Chen’s tummy. Read my older entries for details.

Hey, I found my hat!

So, I am writing to note two things, both other writings of mine. And it’s not like I write much. Maybe I need to write more. Anyways, tonight I wrote a big long defense of Chen on Forumosa. Since I want to keep it closer to my Internet heart, I wish to reproduce it all here.

Okay, I’ll step up to bat and defend Chen. I never can stand to watch people flock to the winning side.

All I ever hear about why Chen is so rotten amounts to subjective extrapolating based on peoples’ “feelings” about him. Why is he corrupt? Well, because we can just feel it. Just look at him in his Cheshire cat grin. He’s gotta be corrupt. And all that mothing off about how much he loves Taiwan and feels deeply connected to Taiwan is surely more evidence of his duplicity. We know he only loves money (and his equally evil wife for some reason; imaging placing yourself under a car just to score political sympathy, why she probably gave him the idea for staging his own assassination!). Isn’t it so callous to alienate all the “business class” and WSR by spouting crap about how Taiwan looks, feels and smells like a country.

He’s a liar. He’s incompetent. He can’t lead. He sows division.

Yeah, right. I get it. It’s whatever you can think of. The Nazca Lines even seem to indicate somehow that Chen is guilty of being really, really, bad.


Here’s what I think Chen has done well: He got Taiwan written on the passport. He got a referendum law passed, and sort of used once. He made a visit to the U.S.A. He took down a lot of pictures of C.K.S. (And for some reason, there don’t seem to be many $200 bills circulating.) Some key companies and publications have had their names logically updated. He’s increased Taiwan’s profile in the international consciousness significantly - at least, more people around the world are now aware of China’s belligerence toward Taiwan and the fact it’s not in the UN. He got rid of the Old Thieves and cut the number of seats in the legislature. He got further arms deals from America, and has maintained an amicable relationship with America. I believe the ‘Taiwan caucus’ in the US Congress is growing. I think he even snagged a fresh diplomatic ally or two, and has worked on a relationship with Libya (Oil is oil.).

He presided over a strong response to SARS (and bird flu maybe?), praise for Taiwan’s fast action on tsunami relief and pledging, and a growth in “Taiwan consciousness” among Taiwanese. That is a very good thing in my book. He has accomodated a great deal of peaceful protesting, nearly all of it directed at him. Has ever a president allowed such a large amout of organized, visible dissent? Chavez tolerates a lot, but he commands 70% of the vote. Chen squeaked an electoral majority (that’s m-a-j-o-r-i-t-y people!!!!!) but lets his opponents (twice) take over the center of the capital to spout lies and whip up hysteria.

He hasn’t made any significant moves against the brutal media smearing that goes on daily. Ma lets a city flood. A 3-month-old dead body turns up at City Hall. Ma makes (or saves if you prefer) millions on his Dad’s funeral. Ho-hum. But wait a minute. Did you say SOGO coupons? How many? Never mind, it doesn’t matter. It’s CORRUPTION!

He has even lately pleaded with those who hate him to at least show some respect to the flag of the R.O.C. and it’s National Day. Personally, I think old Chiang Kai Shek would prefer Chen at the helm than any of the people working to depose him. So, as you should be able to clearly see, the current picture is ironic in many ways.

Let me do some research and see what I’ve missed… (consults Wikipedia)

In January 2003, a new Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation was formed
opened the three mini links.
It is generally accepted that Chen’s position on this issue is intended and to a large degree has succeeded in placating his pro-independence supporters without crossing any red lines that would trigger war. His supporters see these positions as creative and indicative of a willingness to compromise.
In an interview in July 2005, Chen explicitly repudiated the position of all former Taiwanese leaders that the Republic of China was still the legitimate government of the whole of China. “The republic of China on Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China on the mainland are two separate countries with divided rule and do not exercise sovereignty over each other,” he said. “Under the principle of popular sovereignty and self determination, we consider that the question of whether Taiwan should be united with China should be the decision of the 23 million people of Taiwan.”
In October 2003, Chen flew to New York City for the second time. At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, he was presented with the Human Rights Award by the International League of Human Rights. In the subsequent leg of the trip to Panama, he met with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and shook hands with him.
He defended his proposals to change the constitution, but asked for constitutional reform to be undertaken through existing procedures instead of calling for a referendum for an entirely new constitution which was proposed by former president Lee Teng-hui. (That couldn’t be compromise, could it?)
In 2005 Chen became the first ROC president to visit Europe, when he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City (and he behaved modestly)

His failures, which he admits to: not being able to guarantee a free Taiwan for the future generations born here. Not winning a majority in the last legislative election. Not having excerted enough positive influence on his son-in-law.

About earlier comments made regarding Chen not knowing how to compromise, what about his appointing Tang Fei as Premier, and having half his original cabinet members come from other parties? The opposition blocked him steadily. Now they complain that he doesn’t make enough overtures to their point of view. But he’s clearly been moderate on cross-strait trade. Members of his own party would be more protectionist than Chen’s preference. Believe it or not, there is a strong argument against opening up to China.

So these things I have laid out are REAL, with a capital letter, la! You may not think they are all “good” things if you love the idea of China being as big as possible for some strange reason (and want to snuff out the world’s last surviving Chinese democracy).

If you want to tell me President Chen is a crook who disgraces Taiwan, I’ll show you an average Taiwanese person. Don’t forget Chen was supposed to lose the last election big-time. How many so-called sympathy votes do you really think he got?

What would you do if you were the First Lady of Taiwan at your grandson’s birthday? “Oh sorry, I cannot accept SOGO coupons as a gift because my better instincts tell me that might later be construed as a form of cash and I wouldn’t want to give my half-country the wrong impression that I was peddling my husband’s influence on the cheap.”

Show me the facts. Tell me what is REALLY so bad about Chen. What has he done other than gotten a lot of people jawboning him? I didn’t read a single fact on this thread, which I painfully read through.

And just last Sunday, the Taipei Times printed a letter of mine urging Chen to step down for the sake of his health and the health of his family members, assailed by insanity so they are. Honestly, I just think this is the best thing to do. And it would give Annette Lu the chance to be president. That would be really cool. I’ve had a not-so-secret urge for years to build an Annette Lu shrine on the Internet. I think she would make a cool prez. She might even go and say something crazy, like “Taiwan is a country” before China was ready to launch an invasion. Of course, if she does that, I want to go on record ahead of time as saying I feel it would have been better all along if there hadn’t been the stupid Shih Min-DUH rally against A-bian in the first place.

On a bright note, the ruckus kicked up by Shih Min-DUH led to the presence of several newswire stringers on island (can’t say in-country) who spread the (real) news around the world that President Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-chen was found not guilty of accepting the jaw-dropping sum of US$8000 in department store coupons as a bribe for her husband’s influence in an ownership battle that had already taken place. (Just read it twice. There are no mistakes.)

The letter isn’t on the Times Website, so I’ll have to put my copy here. They did change some wording.

To the editor:

I think the DPP should support a referendum on whether President Chen should step down. This is the most attractive of the available outcomes. For one thing, it would expose the redshirts for what they truly are - a wilfully divisive social movement that allows itself to be led by chant rather than reason.

By ceaselessly demonstrating, the redshirts are insisting that their will is more important than the will of over 50% of voters in the last election. Ironically, their spokespeople, at the same time, accuse the Chen and the pan-greens of tearing apart the country. (Maybe they have another wording.)

But the redshirts have no way of knowing just how many people voted for Chen but now regret it. That could be a half million people, or it could be four million people. Either way, it doesn’t justify a protest group giving the government an ultimatum. I wonder how many of the celebrities that have “come out” against Chen ever voted for him in the first place. How do we know what is the truth? (Remember the last slogan?) Are we to use telephone polls to determine this?

A referendum would set the record straight. Sure, Chen would probably be forced to step down, but he deserves a vacation anyway. He’s already done everything that he feels able to do for Taiwan. We’ve all heard the nos and withouts and whatnots. Any further Chen initiatives are likely to be just posturing, and the pan-blues appear sworn to some higher power to block any legislation proposed by the pan-greens. This will be doubly true in the post-red era if Chen holds onto power.

Then, there is the interesting possibility of getting some real work done under “President Lu.” She could appoint Wang Jin-pyng as Premier, helping to alleviate the arbitrary-bill-blockage problem. We might see some important stuff get done for a change. Perhaps Su Tseng-chang could become the new VP, allowing him to stay on camera, but out of trouble, in the lead-up to the next election. Maybe we could even see the Control Yuan function again. The DPP seems to be holding most of the cards right now. The protesters’ stamina can’t last forever, and winter is coming. I say, negotiate.

I don’t see why Chen should object to a referendum, except out of indignation. He has the health of his family to consider, and things are getting a little (ahem) crazed these days. And he would surely do better to agree now, than to risk some turncoat DPP legislators making the choice for him.

A referendum is a democratic instrument. Holding a second one would help establish the practice, especially since the pan-blues would consent this time. China might not even burp, which would be another fine precedent to set. Furthermore, I expect the referendum results would hearten those who still believe Chen has done a not-so-bad job during difficult times, and those who feel democratic laws are superior to “people power.” So why choose stalemate?

Peter Dearman
Hsintian (Xindian)