Given the restraint of the president over the last couple of days, it’s likely that he will let the blue continue to make fools out of themselves. A few wounded cops on national television (and that’s bloody likely if they try to break the police cordon, not that I want to see the poor guys charged with the defense of the presidential palace wounded or worse) would do a lot to change the perception of the whole thing.
He would be wise not to take any steps who would give the blues a chance to protrait themselves as martyrs. After all, the moralic high horse will be the best bet for him right now. He’s won the election, he’s following the relevant laws to the letter, in short, he’s doing much better than Lian Zhan/James Soong would do in the same situation.
What’s truly absurd is that the Blues were clamoring for Chen to declare a state of emergency so that the normal election laws can be suspended for a recount. A state of emergency is essentially martial law. Has there ever been another example in world history where OPPOSITION lawmakers demanded the imposition of martial law???
It truly boggles the mind.
Hello – under a state of emergency the President could just round up Lien and Soong and have them summarily executed.
Another brilliant idea that the pan-Blue cretins came up with last night:
To change the elections laws so that the presidential election is automatically suspended if any of the candidates is “injured” within 7 days of the election.
So if if I’m running behind in the polls all I need to do is conveniently sprain my ankle then I get to postpone the election???
They even had the nerve to want to make it retroactive to this election. Like someone in the DPP tartly noted: why don’t they just write into the constitution that Lien Chan will be the next President?
That’s another first - the opposition wants martial law to be imposed.
It’s just a pathetic attempt to create a sense of acute cris - demonstration in front of presidential palace, martial law, dispute the election, and then Lian can “save taiwan”, IE coup the government.
Let’s round up a lot of children and take them there Saturday. We make sure that they getto stand between the demonstrators and the police and that the global media is on it - let’s then see if hte blue boys will dare to start anything funny.
[quote=“SCL”]Another brilliant idea that the pan-Blue cretins came up with last night:
To change the elections laws so that the presidential election is automatically suspended if any of the candidates is “injured” within 7 days of the election.
So if if I’m running behind in the polls all I need to do is conveniently sprain my ankle then I get to postpone the election???
They even had the nerve to want to make it retroactive to this election. Like someone in the DPP tartly noted: why don’t they just write into the constitution that Lien Chan will be the next President? [/quote]
If they get this through, they might as well declare martial law. Do you think the middle of the road Taiwanese who are not firmly in the camp of either party would accept such a meddling in the electoral process? I would hope not, but I have my doubts.
[quote=“cranky laowai”]This is troubling: [quote]Taiwan radicals urge violent protests
Financial Times, UK - 6 hours ago
… Only a revolution could succeed in overturning Mr Chen’s government, Chiu I, legislator of the People First party (PFP), told the Financial Times. …[/quote][/quote]
I agree with you, Cranky. It is very troubling indeed.
I feel tremendously uneasy about what might happen tomorrow. I have very little doubt that Lien, Soong and the more extreme of their cohorts and supporters are bent on doing whatever it takes to overturn the result of the election.
My reading of the situation is that they know the recount is almost certainly a blind alley for them, so they’ve now set their sights on fomenting violent civil unrest as the best means of achieving their ends (whether by forcing Chen to cave in and grant all their demands, or by giving China an excuse to intervene to “restore order”, or however). They care not a whit about the harm they may cause, as long as they can turn the situation their way and get closer to grabbing the power they so crave.
That skunk Chiu Yi is the worst of the lot, the most despicable of all the rabble-rousers in their pack. He certainly deserves to be arrested and put on trial for fomenting insurrection, and I dearly hope he’ll get his comeuppance after this sordid attack on democracy is brought to an end.
If there are nasty riots tomorrow it is going to be interesting to see how Mayor Ma reacts. If Ah-Bian plays his cards right, the DPP might be able to let Lien/Soong drag down with them the KMT’s best bet for a win in 2008…Ma
Chen needs to make sure that the peace and well being of Taipei is the responsibility of its’ mayor. And he also needs to make sure that he tells all of Taiwan this.
[quote=“Durins Bane”]If there are nasty riots tomorrow it is going to be interesting to see how Mayor Ma reacts. If Ah-Bian plays his cards right, the DPP might be able to let Lien/Soong drag down with them the KMT’s best bet for a win in 2008…Ma
Chen needs to make sure that the peace and well being of Taipei is the responsibility of its’ mayor. And he also needs to make sure that he tells all of Taiwan this. [/quote]
Heck, they are getting in a little practice at the CEC right now.
I walked through the presidential palace on my way home from work. Some guy shouted in my ear ‘GoGoGo, My Friend!’ and some girl shouted in English as I passed her “We want Peace and Democracy!” I quickly walked away into an array of KMT paraphernalia: flashing KMT stars, Lien-Soong baseball caps. And then there was the smell of Beer beer beer and cigarettes. And hundreds and thousands of sore sore sore losers losers LOSERS.
The last growing pains of a baby democracy? Congratulations, folks. Taiwan has lost its title of ‘model Asian democracy’, at least for now. Some people had hung a sign on the big gate in middle of the round about that said ‘阿扁作票無恥’. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black… Somehow, I don’t think the DPP supporters would be acting so shamelessly if they had lost by a slight margin.
Shit, sounds like fun to me… Throw in one of the Bing lung (spelling, who cares???) babes and you can count me in… I dont care who won/lost, I am getting a 12ver of tallboys, couple of bags of Bing Lung (In case a riot breaks, bing lung with my classic Vans make me run faster), and my digital camera… Will make some interesting pixs to send home… Anyone want to join, I am always up for a good riot!!!
So if any of you guys/gals see a tattoed American on TV with red drool zipping around everywhere shouting the rebel yell along with “The south will rise again”, wearing an 80’s Budweiser shirt (my favorite) you guys can say “Hey, I know that idiot from Forumosa”… The Taiwanese wont know what hit them, they will say F*ck the election lets kill that guy, but then again the bud shirt is blue so might just fit in…
JUST KIDDING, but does sound like fun in a morbid way, always wanted to be a war photographer growing up (strange kid)… Told my wife that and she said she would leave me if I did… she doesnt know though, while she is off Tomb sweeping I think I might just sneak off, Keep your eye open for me…
[quote=“Durins Bane”]If there are nasty riots tomorrow it is going to be interesting to see how Mayor Ma reacts. If Ah-Bian plays his cards right, the DPP might be able to let Lien/Soong drag down with them the KMT’s best bet for a win in 2008…Ma
Chen needs to make sure that the peace and well being of Taipei is the responsibility of its’ mayor. And he also needs to make sure that he tells all of Taiwan this. [/quote]
You bring up a good point there. This really puts Ma in a bad situation - and I think that is what Lien wants. If Ma supports the protest, he really does a discredit to his role as mayor. If Ma does anything against the protest, he alienates himself from the KMT and loses any shot at a presidential bid in 2008. Ma is positioned to step up in the KMT should Lien ever lose power. Lien doesn’t want to give up power, and it probably doing whatever he can to make Ma look bad. Just my theory…
I’m very pleased to wake up to the rain this morning.
It’s nowhere near heavy enough (where’s a typhoon or tropical storm when one needs one?), and I doubt it’ll deter many of those leadheads from joining the demonstration, but at least I hope it’ll make them uncomfortable and cause a good few of the weaker ones to catch nasty colds.
I’m waiting for the pan-blues to say the rain and cold have been faked…[/quote]
They have already. Some protesters on the news yesterday were saying that they suspected A-Bian had gone in for a bit of weather engineering to make it rain.
[PYOS: Pick your own smiley!]
Coup? My friend and I went up there on Thursday. The protestors mostly looked like they might choke on their wads of binlang or keel over from old age whilst scrambling to get their $2000 pay for the day, or their free lunch boxes.
Never saw such a display of dead fish eyes wearing yellow plastic 7-11 rain gear in all my life.
Being a kitsch souvenier hound, I just had to get a pop up Lien doll. I love to make my pop up Chen beat the shit out of pop up Lien, in the fashion of Punch and Judy.
