Pan-blue camp needs to give it a rest

After more than seven months, the Taiwan High Court on Thursday gave its verdict on the lawsuit filed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) seeking to overturn the result of the presidential election.

All claims made by the KMT and the PFP were rejected. But the pan-blue camp has refused to accept this verdict.

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said that Thursday was the darkest day of Taiwan's democracy. He believes that the findings of the court were riddled with mistakes which disappointed him and his supporters. According to Lien, the battle is not yet over, and they will continue to file appeals. PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) expressed the utmost support for Lien's view.

Before the verdict came out, the US presidential election, which was briefly expected to create controversy and drag out for days or longer because of the close result, ended after Senator John Kerry called US President George W. Bush and conceded defeat. Both the Kerry and Bush camps reiterated that they are all Americans and vowed to work hand in hand to make the US better.

Taiwan and the US are both democratic countries. Therefore, it brings mixed feelings to realize that the controversy surrounding Taiwan's election continues to make waves.

In this past presidential election, Lien and Soong were defeated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) by a margin of around 25,000 votes. After the election result was final and everyone was ready to move past the presidential race, Lien and Soong openly declared that they refused to accept the result.

Thereafter, although Chen executed a written consent to the court to speed up the judicial process, Lien and Soong repeatedly led their supporters in taking to the streets to protest, creating many confrontations in front of the Presidential Office. They even tried to attract foreign attention and help to their cause.

Later, seeing how the constant rallies were causing resentment for most of the public, the KMT and PFP reluctantly turned to judicial remedy instead.

Still, they declared that they would only accept a "fair" judicial verdict. Having left the streets, the KMT and PFP instead moved their battleground to the Legislative Yuan, where they have deliberately tried to paralyze the Chen government and its policies through boycotts and meddling in important bills and budgets.

This behavior can be seen as pure denial. They deny both the result of the presidential election as well as the legitimacy of Chen's presidency.

Leaving aside their conduct over the past seven months, right before the verdict of the Taiwan High Court, Lien and Soong still behaved as if they were enjoying the endgame of the presidential race. Lien said everyone can "put to death" someone who has committed fraud.

Soong said "without the truth, there is no mutual trust in the society, and there will always be polarization in Taiwan."

What this all boils down to is that Lien and Soong question the truth of the March 19 assassination attempt against Chen and Lu.

This is why both the KMT and PFP openly declared that they must get satisfactory answers from a judicial recount of the votes and an investigation of the assassination attempt and the subsequent triggering of the national security mechanism, as well as the debate over holding the presidential election and the national referendum on the same day.