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Taiwan: campaign against president Chen

Categories: East Asia, Taiwan (ROC), Politics, Protest

The campaign against the Taiwan president Chen Shiu-Bien started on last Saturday, 9 of September. Whether to support Bien or depose Bien, that’s the question for many Taiwanese bloggers:

Hung Wing tries to answer the question [1] :

為什麼要倒扁, 是因為不希望國家再繼續空轉兩年, 每一個新的政策都需要時間來蘊釀推行, 我們的時間是很寶貴的…
為什麼要挺扁, 老實說我還真的想不到有任何的理由, 除了它是本土政權的代表, so what?
陳水扁他給自己訂了三大計劃,包括以台灣名義申請加入聯合國、推動台灣新憲法以及要求國民黨將黨產歸還給國家人民
不過看來看去,還是沒有經濟議題,或是有關民生的政策, 唉~
所以把其放在天平的兩端…嗯~該偏向那邊就很明顯了,
但這只是我

Why do we need to depose Bien? Because we don’t want to waste our time for two more years, it takes time to formulate new policy and our time is precious…
Why do we need to support Bien? To be frank, I can’t think of any reason except that it represents a local political power, so what?
Chen Shiu Bien have three major plans, including joining the United Nation, promoting new constitution and confiscate KMT’s party property and return them to the government.
I could not see any economic agenda here. Or any thing related with people’s livelihood. – gosh.
So if we put the two positions on to the balance, where should I side with becomes rather obvious.
But this is only my position.

Gaelow decides to join the protest because of Shih Ming-te's image [2] (the leader of the campaign):

不管晴天或是雨天,老施的最後一役,我是決定要參加了。我記得在很小的時候,報紙上面刊出憲兵挨打的照片,尚未懂得政治的我,只覺得打憲兵很不應該,不多久,電視上就成天放著老施的相片,頭號通緝要犯,可能整形逃亡。那時候只覺得老施真是個壞人

No matter whether it is sunny or rainy, I decided to participate in Shih’s last battle. When I was small, there were photos about protesters beating soldiers. At that time, I did not know anything about politics, just felt that people should not hit soldiers; later on, we could see Shih’s photos on the T.V, he became the number one criminal on the run. At that time, I really thought that Shih was a bad guy.

However, even though Minimalism doesn’t support Bien, he could not make sense why people would participate in the anti-Bien campaign [3]:

我只知道,這一次的活動,不管成功、失敗!
對我這種和政治絕緣的人,生活還是一樣。
對學生、對家庭主婦、對大多數的台灣人,不過是一場…”哦,倒扁嗎?你有去嗎?”
意義層面就停在”你有沒有參與的層面”罷了。

All I know is, no matter whether this campaign is successful or not, to apolitical people like myself, life would be the same.
To students, housewife or the majority of Taiwan people, the campaign would be… “oh, the depose Bien campaign? Did you go?” The significance would only be “whether or not you have participate on that”.

Michael Turton criticizes mainstream media such as AP and BBC for being too one-sided and stresses that the campaign is a pan-blue event [4]:

It's pathetic that the journalist didn't bother to do even the slightest bit of background research into these claims. I've commented here on the partisanship of the campaign innumerable times, but the truth is always worth repeating.

For those who choose to support Bien maintained that people should purge KMT first before deposing Bien. Go with my bear doubts whether this campaign is really meant for anti-corruption [5]:

不可否認陳水扁的總統執政不及格,讓當出選他的人民失望。但是以「貪腐」為訴求拉他下台是包藏禍心的美麗糖衣。請先讓貪腐五十年的中國國民黨接受制裁可以嗎,陳水扁真的只是個「總統的見習生」,但是你我有選票最大的武器卻捨棄不用,白白讓台灣政治開回頭路。

I would not deny that President Chen Shui-bien failed in his work and disappointed those who had elected him. However, using “corruption” to pull him down was a candy with poison inside. Can we let the KMT which had been corrupted for 50 years to be punished first? Chen Shui-bien is really “a trainee president”. We have our voting right as best weapon, why do we give it up and make it a setback for Taiwan politics?

Eroach chooses to watch baseball rather than joining the campaign; he does not show his stand but agrees that the problem should be solved by a better political system [6]:

沒有一台講到這些棒球新聞,都在講倒扁。一邊要倒扁,扁不想被倒,怎麼辦?有一台某名嘴說,馬英九可以結合無盟、親民黨修改公投法,讓人民提出公投案的門檻降低,讓人民用公投決定阿扁要不要下台!說得好…

Not a single T.V station talks about the baseball news, all are about depose Bien campaign. Now that we have one side wanting to despose Bien and Bien doesn’t want to be deposed, what should we do? A talk show celebrity suggests that Ma Ying-jeo can work with others parties in the legislative body to amend the general election bill, to make it easiler for people to use their voting rights to decide whether Bien should step down or not! The suggestion is really great…

Photos from Yuping