The past few days have seen so many bewildering and inexplicable events relating to the presidential campaign that one despairs of making head or tail of it. But more than any other, there is one question which sticks in the mind. Why must the pan-blue alliance continually obfuscate the truth?
As if it weren't bad enough to run five full-page ads in Chinese-language newspapers equating President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) with Adolf Hitler, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) then proved his utter contemptibility in a statement on Friday regarding the Central Election Commission's decision to count misplaced presidential ballots.
"If Chen insists on counting ballots placed in the wrong ballot boxes as valid, then he is acting just like that dictator, Hitler," he declared.
Such a patently absurd claim deserves to be heaped with ridicule. Comparing the Chen administration to the Nazi regime is, at best, a total misrepresentation of historical fact or, at worst, malicious and offensive libel.
The pan-blues have once again proven their compulsive hypocrisy and craven amorality.
You needn't be exceedingly familiar with the history of Taiwan to judge which political party's past most closely resembles the genocidal violence and fascist oppression of Hitler's National Socialist Party.
The murder, torture and persecution of political dissidents and minority ethnic groups by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) are matters of record. The use of assassination, the employment of brutal thugs to assault opposition members, the repression of free speech, the quashing of political dissent, the use of torture, sham trials and summary executions are all characteristics of the KMT during the White Terror.
It would be irresponsible and unethical to claim that the modern KMT still employs such tactics. But surely its shift toward a more benign style of politics is a result of the efforts of people such as Chen -- a longtime democracy activist, former human-rights lawyer and victim of KMT oppression -- to make the government accountable to the people.
During last Saturday's 313 Rally, Soong fell to his knees in Taichung and kissed the ground to "show his love for Taiwan." Not to be outdone, Lien later prostrated himself before the Presidential Office and kissed the ground as well. How these gestures will be interpreted by the electorate is not clear, but it is clear that Lien and Soong will do anything, even abase themselves in public, to gain power.
Lately, the pan-blue camp has been running a series of TV advertisements in which it has attempted to equate Lien with former US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and former UK prime minister Winston Churchill. But it seems that when the alliance was studying up on these leaders, there was an error in translation.
Roosevelt said: "We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees." Apparently the pan-blues have translated this as, "It is better to win on your knees than lose on your feet."
The pan-blues should be ashamed of adopting such cheap, indefensible theatrics. It would be easier to respect the policies and leadership of the KMT and the PFP were they to refrain from making such spurious and feckless declarations. But it is too much to expect the pan-blues to use truth in their campaign.
For were they to tell the truth about their shadowy financial dealings, their connections to the underworld, their corruption, their pandering to Beijing and their subordination of Taiwan's welfare in their quest to quench their thirst for power, no one would vote for them.
Mac William Bishop is a political commentator based in Taipei.
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