Saturday's march a test for the pan-blues

The 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally, with 2 million people taking to the streets, set a record hard to surpass in the history of Taiwan's democratic development. What role do the 2 million participants of the rally play in the presidential election? What impact do they have? Well, we'll know the answer on March 20.

Seeing the crowds that day, the pan-blue camp could not be more worried. Although it tried to comfort itself by saying that "polls are of reference value only," it immediately emulated the pan-green camp by planning to hold a nationwide march tomorrow.

The pan-blue camp first branded the march as an "anti-corruption parade." Later, it changed the official slogan to "change the president and salvage Taiwan." Obviously, the camp has felt the pressure presented by the 228 rally and also needs to mobilize its supporters to get out of the predicament.

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) originally attempted to use Chen Yu-hao's (陳由豪) bribery accusations as a reason to label the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as corrupt. That is how the idea of an "anti-corruption parade" came to birth.

However, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the PFP themselves represent the force most connected with gangsters and business interests. Their anti-corruption move is tantamount to exposing their own wrongdoings for public scrutiny and ridicule. That's why they quickly changed their slogan to "change the president and salvage Taiwan."

With their motives behind altering the theme of the activity so obvious, PFP Legislator Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) still tried to defend the change and said that it's because "people think the anti-corruption appeal is not broad enough."

Is the anti-corruption theme really not broad enough? It actually served as one of the major campaign themes for the DPP in the 2000 presidential election. It was also the reason behind Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh's (李遠哲) stepping forward to stump for then-candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Even many KMT figures admitted that the party has paid the price for its corruption with the loss of power. So the statement that the anti-corruption theme is not broad enough does not stand.

A few days ago, Taiwan Pineapple Group vice-chairman Huang Tsung-hung (黃宗宏) wrote to the media, stating that he had provided political donations to the KMT and got "things" done. The pan-blue camp's hesitance in launching an anti-corruption campaign at least shows that it knows itself well.

The reason why the human-chain rally could attract so many people is because the appeal of "protecting Taiwan hand-in-hand" touched the hearts of the Taiwanese people. Marketing theories contend that the most successful advertisements usually awaken the deepest desires of human beings. The success of the hand-in-hand rally lies in its successful eliciting of the deepest aspirations of the Taiwanese people.

Then, how about the slogan of "change the president and salvage Taiwan?" Burdened with the history of corruption, the KMT-PFP alliance can only mobilize those "reunification fundamentalists" to join in the march.

Let's wait and see how large a supporting base the pan-blue camp has even with its most thorough and effective mobilization. Let's see whether "changing the president" makes a more appealing appeal than "protecting Taiwan hand-in-hand." The 313 march provides the most stringent test for the pan-blue camp.

Chin Heng-wei is editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.

Translated by Jennie Shih