2006-11-07

Taiwan: suggested pan-Red strategy





As predicted, DPP seems determined to protect CSB, and to allow the scandal to drag itself down. Even TSU has cold feet now. The happiest people, I guess, are the deep Blue strategists. Because this means DPP is increasingly shifting its support base away from the center, hence ceding the center to the Blue. Guaranteed win with no contest for KMT in the mayoral, and eventually presidential election. Without competition, it does the people in Taiwan no good. KMT might just retreat to the pre-reform era, back to incompetence and corruption.

What should the Red do?

Here is one suggestion. Campaign for the rehabilitation of Gong Chaosheng (前金管會主委龔照勝、金管會委員林忠正、內政部次長顏萬進) etc. one by one. Because after all, it is unfair that these people were sacked and expelled from their parties right after indictment, and before the verdict from the court is delivered. They deserve the same treatment as the president.

This should have the support from pan-Blue. DPP would find no excuse not to support it. When DPP members and supporters finally see the irony, they will probably wake up.

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Will the DPP supporters wake up? I will tell you the story of my mother.

My mother is a die hard supporter of DPP and Chen Shui-bian, even though she only has been to Taiwan a few times. She loathes CCP, and she is from the area near south Fujian and speaks the Minnan (aka South Fujianese or Taiwanese) dialect. She likes CSB because she thinks he is the only person who dares to challenge the CCP government, especially in the time when the "sudden-patriots" in HK are kowtowing.
  • If we rank the people in Taiwan from the greenest to the bluest, 1 being greenest and 100 being bluest. We would probably have 30 green, 40 center and 30 blue. My mom would be around number 10.
  • The main difference between my mom and Lee Tenghui is - she thinks Taiwanese are Chinese people, but she agreees with LTH and CSB that Taiwan should be independent. She also loathes Shih Mingteh, Lian Chan. In addition, she thinks Ma Yingjeou is not too different from Lian Chan (this is where my view differs with hers).
  • She has not visited the mainland for some 7-8 years, apparently she still cannot forgive what CCP did during the Cultural Revolution and she thinks little has changed in the 'party way' since. I tend to be more sympathetic and, having witnessed the changes and problems of China in the past 10 years, (believe I) realize the complexity of the problems CCP faces. Even though I disagree with the CCP in a lot of issues, I think they did a decent job bringing China to where it is today. Calling myself a pragmatist, I am also willing to praise any small progress (e.g. Chen Liangyu case) even though I wish they could have been bolder, faster and happened earlier. Perhaps she is right and I may be wrong in some issues. Listening to her views makes me think and reflect.
Even after she heard the news that Wu Shu-chun was indicted, she tried to defend CSB, saying that the amount (NT$1400M) is tiny compared with the old KMT and those corruptors in the mainland today. It was almost two days later, after she read the details of why the WSC was indicted, she finally stopped defending them. She was disappointed. She stopped defending CSB. But she is still sympathetic to DPP in general.

If her case could be indicative, the line DPP is defending probably retreated a bit in the past few days.

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