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Airport scuffle not unusual

I must disagree with the conclusions made in your article about the airport scuffles ("Analysts say scuffles show Taiwan's weaknesses," April 27, page 3). The analyst quoted in the story obviously takes a single point of view and doesn't take his own advice of trying to understand the point of view of others.

Those people who went to the airport and scuffled with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) supporters weren't just being intolerant. They were expressing their intention to protect Taiwan from those who would undermine its sovereignty. Protecting your country doesn't usually come in the form of a well-mannered academic debate, it in fact requires the threat of force. Just as everyone in Taiwan understands the threat of force that the People's Republic of China (PRC) projects in their direction, opposition leaders that seek political gain in Taiwan should understand that using the PRC to achieve that political gain may in fact endanger themselves.

This is not an irrational statement made with the purpose of encouraging such behavior, it is only a recognition that there are many people in Taiwan that are willing to put their own lives on the line for the cause of independence.

Lien should have been more rational and understanding of these forces in Taiwanese society before he agreed to this trip. He should expect more of the same everywhere he goes, because in the eyes of many Taiwanese he is a traitor, and under the law traitors deserve hefty prison sentences or more.

There is no democracy on earth which has a completely civil and peaceful coexistence of opposition parties. To say that Taiwan's democracy is not mature because there are passionate opposing beliefs is completely wrong.

To say that Taiwan's democracy is mature because there are passionate opposing beliefs and that neither side has the power to obliterate the other is accurate. If democracy was a pretty, organized and quiet affair, then the communists in China would already have adopted it. It is the appearance of social discord and anarchy that can be promoted in the exact same way that your article has done that serves as the PRC's justification for not accepting democracy.

Gregory Lloyd
Maryland

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