Ignoring the summer heat of southern Taiwan, thousands of people yesterday took part in a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)- organized rally in Kaohsiung to demand the ouster of President Chen Shui-bian (
The KMT's rally yesterday was the second of the party's three protests around the nation which aim to gather public support for the recall motion before the legislature votes on it on Tuesday.
Denouncing Chen for failing to improve the country's economy and cross-strait relations over the past six years, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, AP
"The recall motion is not a political clash between the pan-blue and pan-green camp, and it is not an opposition scheme aimed at grabbing power. It's for the future of all the people," Ma said during the rally held at the National Science and Technology Museum.
Outside the rally, pan-green supporters shouting "Get lost, Ma Ying-jeou" burned KMT party flags. At one point, some even tried to occupy the satellite vans of media outlets they accused of being pro-China.
The protesters were stopped by the police.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma said the biggest issue for the president was that the people around him loved money, and had "abused their power after they got it."
"If my secretary and my wife became rich through graft, playing the stock market or gambling, would you still want me to be Taipei mayor?" asked Ma, who also serves as Taipei mayor.
Speaking in both Mandarin and Taiwanese, Ma asked the crowd "have our lives gotten better?"
"No," the crowd responded, waving flags and placards while cheering Ma's speech.
"Only by ousting President Chen will Taiwan have a future," Ma said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Tight security
To ensure the KMT chairman's safety amid alleged assassination threats aired on pirate radio stations in the south, Kaohsiung police assigned more than 2,000 officers to secure the site of the rally, with about 100 police following Ma around to protect him.
In Taipei yesterday, the People First Party (PFP) gathered more than 80 cars to protest against Chen around CKS Memorial Hall, expressing their anger by honking their horns.
PFP Chairman James Soong (
"President Chen should step down immediately because it's impossible that he can finish his term without further corruption ? If the DPP still has a conscience, it should join our plea and ask Chen to step down," Soong said.
Ma paid a brief visit to Soong before heading to Kaohsiung.
Expressing his determination to continue his sit-in, rather than attending the KMT rally, Soong urged the KMT chairman to play a more active role in fighting against a corrupt government.
"If Taiwan continues to sink into depravity, there will be no future for democracy, and the opposition can stop thinking about the 2008 presidential election," he said.
Taipei scuffles
In related developments, dozens of pro-independence activists demonstrating outside the KMT's headquarters in Taipei scuffled with the party's supporters before they were separated by police.
The demostrators accused the KMT of illegally amassing a fortune through cozy business links while in power and demanded that it return its stolen assets to the people.
Following another rally to be held today in Taipei, the KMT will invite more than 5,000 supporters to gather outside the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday to display their support for Chen's ouster.
DPP spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (
Additional reporting by AFP
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS