On the final weekend before Saturday's local government elections, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets yesterday across Taiwan to rally for their chosen candidates.
The pan-green and the pan-blue camps held rallies throughout the country, as candidates tried to give their campaigns an 11th hour boost.
From Pingtung County to Taipei County, about 600,000 people -- according to party officials -- poured onto the streets to join in the parades held by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday in 19 cities and counties to build momentum for its commissionership candidates.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP heavyweights, including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌),Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun and Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), yesterday joined several parades -- dubbed "asking for reforms and defending Taiwan" -- that were held in Taipei, Taichung, Ilan and Pingtung counties.
Each politician endeavored to boost the DPP candidates' momentum and many Cabinet officials also attended the events held around the country yesterday.
Amid deafening drumbeats and whistles, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: STEVE CHEN, AP
At about 2:30pm, the DPP initiated the day's parades in Pingtung County, with similar events in other areas starting after that in succession, moving northward to Taipei County.
A massive human chain appeared in Taipei County yesterday afternoon. Marchers gathered in front of the Kuantu Bridge (
About 100,000 people participated in the hand-in-hand activity and the campaign rally held under the Chunghsin Bridge (
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
At about 3:20pm, with confetti and fireworks filling the air, Chen, Su and Luo together appeared on the stage, joined hands and shouted "Luo Wen-chia!" and "Vote for No.5!" The audience also joined hands at the same moment and waved little green flags.
After Luo and Su addressed supporters, Chen spoke, marking the climax of the rally.
Chen said that the KMT's rally in Taipei City showed that it hadn't moved forward since March 20 last year -- the day that party lost the presidential election.
PHOTO: LI CHING-FANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The KMT's rally proves that it can't get out from under the shadow of its defeat. But Taiwan has to move on. People who can't move on should be left to history," Chen said. "Those who condemn and distrust Taiwan are not qualified to lead Taiwan. Whether the DPP or the KMT is a better choice for voters is clear."
Chen criticized Luo's rival, KMT Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), saying that Chou was not qualified to be a candidate and characterized him as "dishonest, ungrateful and shiftless."
Chen said that Chou had lied about borrowing money from the Taiwan Business Bank and refused to pay his loan off using his position of privilege. Chen added that Chou had changed political parties three times in five years, saying that this was dishonest and unreliable.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"From the KMT to the People First Party [PFP] and then back to the KMT, Chou is a fickle politician who always follows the powerful. Chou spurned PFP Chairman James Soong's [宋楚瑜] help, and supporters and voters should spurn such a heartless candidate," Chen said.
Chen said that Chou seems happy to be Ma's servant and has no ideas of his own.
"Throughout the election campaign, Chou has only argued that Taipei County should be merged with Taipei City. But this would only make Taipei County become a dump that has to take unwanted things from Taipei City," Chen said. "I support Taipei County being promoted to be a city directly administered by the Cabinet along the lines of Taipei City and Kaohsiung City."
PHOTO: SHAO HSIN-CHIEH, TAIPEI TIMES
"Taipei County is supposed to be equal with Taipei City and is not a dependency of Taipei City. It's just like Taiwan is by no means a part of China," Chen said.
Chen also turned on Ma, saying that he had broken his promises, proving that Ma is unable to change the KMT and he has been changed by the KMT's "black gold" culture instead.
"The KMT is a "three-in-one" party, encompassing the abuses of corruption, decay and embezzlement," Chen said.
PHOTO: JUAN YI-YU, TAIPEI TIMES
Over half of the KMT nominees have a record of vote-buying or corruption and Ma still nominated them, he added.
In each city and county, about 30,000 people joined in the DPP's parades, said DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦).
Meanwhile, at the KMT rally, Ma led his party in a vigorous condemnation of the government.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"With so many people joining this rally, I think the government should take into account the people's desire to have an uncorrupt and just administration," Ma said yesterday in front of the Songshan Tobacco Factory Park before the rally started.
With the theme of "Oppose Corruption, Save Taiwan," the rally was designed to hammer away at the DPP government for its involvement in recent scandals such as the KRTC controversy, and call for voter support for pan-blue candidates in Saturday's elections.
Proceeding from the park, rally participants flooded down Zhongxiao E Road, and paraded down Jianguo S Road and Renai Road before arriving at Ketagelan Boulevard. The march was bursting with the color red and filled with whistles and shouts as enthusiastic KMT supporters waved the national flag and yelled "Go, go KMT!" and "Step down Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)!" along the route.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I came here today because the DPP government is too rotten, and we really need it to see our anger," said a woman from Taipei County surnamed Chang (張).
Making noise
The rally reached a climax when Ma and Wang, accompanied by Chou, arrived at Ketagelan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.
Joined on stage by former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明), the five men beat on big drums as the crowd yelled slogans.
KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) urged participants to make more noise, so that their voices and the drums, which she said represented Taiwanese people's resentment against the DPP government, "will go up to the sky and be heard by God."
The four top KMT figures then took turns making speeches, slamming the DPP for its corruption and incompetence and urging voters to support Chou and other pan-blue candidates.
"The Thai laborer's riot and the KRTC scandal revealed something else about the DPP government. Besides being incompetent, we now know that it is corrupt, too ... The government is rotten, rotten and rotten, right?" Ma said.
Ma said that although the DPP government had publicly promised to reform the country, it had turned corrupt behind the scenes.
"Please vote out the DPP government in the Dec. 3 elections!" he said.
Lien criticized the DPP for stoking ethnic divisions, as well as encouraging class warfare with its recent decision to slash the 18 percent interest rate enjoyed by retired civil servants.
"Chen's approval rating is as low as 20-something percent now, and I believe soon it will be down to 18 percent -- a figure he cares about so much these days," Lien said.
Delivering his speech in Tai-wanese, Wang attributed the rally's success to its clear themes.
"Seeing so many people here today made me understand that you still have hope for Taiwan ... We urge all of you to cast your votes for pan-blue candidates, who love Taiwan truly," he told the crowd.
Disillusionment
Sitting on a curb while cheering at the speeches, Chou Liang-chin (
"The government has been so incompetent for the past five years, and Chen Shui-bian is only good at cheating us of our votes ... I am so heartbroken," he told the Taipei Times.
But although he regretted voting for Chen in last year's presidential election and had shown up for the KMT rally, Chou said he doubted that the KMT would do a better job.
"I don't think there can be a clean government in Taiwan," Chou said. "All politicians think only about how to fill their pockets with money."
At the end of Ma's speech, a model of the presidential office was presented on stage. Ma, Wang, Yuk and Chou used hammers to tear through the model's outside layer, symbolizing the pan-blue camp's determination to fight against the "corrupt" DPP government.
The rally ended with the crowd shouting the slogans "Oppose corruption, Save Taiwan," and "Win back Taiwan."
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