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Call them misguided

The battle is over but the captains and kings have yet to depart, the relinquishment of power being hard to bear. Disturbing images now flood the minds of the good people of Taiwan.

The rapacious lust for power of the pan-blue leaders and their utter disregard for the welfare of Taiwan and its people: their incitement to violence and their baseless, slanderous statements. The disgraceful behavior of certain sections of the media, the unctuous, yet masterful, evasiveness of a high official when questioned as to his role in foul slander, the assassination attempt on the president and vice president and its subsequent confirmation by a world-renowned forensic expert who put integrity and duty before political preference.

The bravado in breaking the law of the pan-blue leaders is astonishing until one recalls a somewhat transposed saying from the Bible, "In the house of our leaders there are many mansions" -- to retreat to! And let us not forget the protean faces of certain high officials, weathercocks and fence sitters, sniffing cautiously at the winds of change, claiming and disclaiming responsibility when it suited them, their eyes fixed on pure self-interest.

With infinite disgust we read an editorial in a newspaper trumpeting its impartiality when its prejudiced news reporting was and still is apparent for all to see. We sat watching the continuing voting results on a television screen showing the pan-green camp to be winning while at the same time listening to a certain radio station telling us the opposite. It was like watching and hearing two different elections at the same time. To the discerning the reason was quite clear.

On the other side of the coin was the calm forbearance of the pan-green leadership and the remarkable efficiency of the police who were initially held in check by partisan politics but who, when finally allowed to bring about law and order, performed with a discipline, competence, restraint and compassion that are unrivalled anywhere in the world.

The great majority of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters are good people who keep the government of this country functioning. Some of them are now, perhaps, having second thoughts. Let us not condemn those who still believe in leaders who obviously think that to lose gracefully is an alien concept. Call them loyal, misguided, naive, brainwashed -- they deserve our sympathy and understanding.

Charles Shuttleworth
Taipei
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