Sayaka Chatani

Random Thoughts on the Taiwanese Election

Michi and I have met and talked with several Taiwanese friends of ours who have various views on the presidential election this time. Some are pro-KMT, some pro-DPP, some are working within the government, some in a political party, some in the business world. As you can see, my interest evolves around the 6 questions below, and our friends gave me insightful opinions that help me organize my thought on these questions..

First of all, there are some doubts and speculations on the shooting incident of Chen Shui-bian. Our KMT friend said that the injury on Chen Shui-bian's belly on the picture must be fake. Her ground is that a shooting injury simultaneously causes a burn on the flesh, so it cannot be as red as his scar. I am of course not a medical specialist so do not have a specific counter-argument. But, this incident is too complicated to be staged. The DPP could have made a much easier case if they really wanted to, and Chen could have acted as if more painful. Anyways, it is very dramatic as a political scene whether it was staged or not, and even DPP supporters (like my roommate) could not believe it immediately.

Whatever the truth is, the problem is whether the effect of this incident was big enough to turn the election result. KMT supporters all freaked out once the result turned out to be the DPP's victory since they believed that the KMT had been in lead by 3-8% (the number depends on whom you ask). My KMT friends all believe that Chen won a lot of sympathy votes and deterred many KMT supporters from going to vote. They also point out that there were too many invalid votes almost to the unnatural extent. Based on these points, many KMT supporters think that the DPP had cheated and that the democracy was harmed by the DPP.

There is no problem in doubting the fairness of an election if there is a good reason, and some measure to examine the election result should be guaranteed. However, the method that the KMT and their supporters have been taking is not effective and even harmful to the Taiwanese society in my opinion.
First of all, the demands of the KMT (supporters) have been changing every day; first they demanded the recount, and the next day they demanded the whole election be canceled. Their arguments to support the recount or cancellation of the election vary, too. Some say "because Chen was shot on the day before, the result should be canceled," some say "because the referendum is illegal, the whole election is invalid," others say "it's because the number of the invalid votes is too big." Putting aside the differences in their views, KMT supporters have been doing a huge protest in front of the Presidential Office, shouting "陳水扁下台！(Chen Shui-bian, step down!),“ "We want the Truth and Democracy!" etc. Observing their demonstration, I cannot help but feel that people who are unsatisfied with the result just shout whatever they want to. This may be a good way of releasing their anger and dissatisfaction, but it is not a desirable way of promoting democracy. Since there is a legal method to examine the election result, the KMT should seek it first instead of creating a huge crowd of extremely emotional people. Their strategy to instigate people's emotional reaction is probably something the DPP had invented, and it has been very effective all the way through the election this time, too. However, the result of this strategy prevents people from thinking rationally and accepting whatever unfavorable to them. For example, why people cannot recall the fact that there are a considerable number of the so-called "pan-purple" people , who support neither the KMT nor the DPP, and many among them voted blank or invalid ballots deliberately, or the fact that the ballot counting rule got stricter before this election, so the increase of invalid votes is a natural phenomenon? They lack a rational thinking on Chen's shooting incident, too. They believe Chen got sympathy votes, but did this really prevent KMT supporters from going to vote? It might have mobilized KMT supporters, too, since the incident was full of mysteries to the public eyes. Even if it is true that the KMT lost too many votes because of this incident, it still lacks the ground for insisting on canceling the result of the election because of that, since they could have demanded the cancelation or postponement of the election before the voting started. These are only some of the debates that have to be argued rationally by both the pan-blue and pan-green Taiwanese people. People need to calm down to solve the problem, but KMT people strengthen their hatred toward Chen Shui-bian by participating the demo and sharing their dissatisfaction, and DPP supporters get more and more pissed off by these KMT protests. I am very worried that this hysteric reaction of the KMT supporters will harm the democracy and the reputation of Taiwan for having a healthy democratic society.....[to be continued] (sorry for not having a structure in this posting. I'll rewrite it soon)