Letter: Calm down, wait and see

When I read the newspaper on June 6, I saw Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) picture, with Ma saying, "If President Chen doesn't resign now, he will die terribly."

How frightening Ma's face was! How cruel his words are!

The problem, of course, is President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), who has been accused of insider trading.

But even if President Chen is guilty and used his privileged position and information to play games on the stock market, his crime is not serious enough to be given the death penalty. Ma has an influential position as leader of the KMT. How can the leader of an important party say such unreasonable and cruel words?

Does Ma want to stir up a war between political groups?

Taiwan already become a democracy. If any president is proven guilty of serious corruption by the courts, then he will be forced to step down from his post.

As a matter of fact, Ma is almost sure to be president of Taiwan in 2008. Why does he want to take over the regime in such a hurry? Does he want to cause more chaos in Taiwan?

Why doesn't he act and speak more reasonably?

I don't know why he has changed so much. In the past he came across as such a fine, reasonable and moderate man.

Nothing be proven by the people. Nothing can be settled by a war of words in the media.

Everyone just calm down and let the courts deal with it. This is the appropriate way to handle the situation.

Chaos conflict on the streets can easily turn into a bloody revolution with many people being sacrificed.

It is well known that the members of the KMT are much more corrupt than those of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but the KMT never think they are wrong. Certainly some members of the DPP are corrupt, although much less so than the KMT. But while the KMT is easily forgiven, the DPP is easily tainted. A corrupt KMT is laughing and throwing stones at a less corrupt DPP. Is this fair?

If the KMT and People First Party (PFP) insist on the recall of President Chen before the justice system proves that he is involved in any corruption, society will be divided in half and a potentially violent conflict will be hard to avoid.

Such a conflict could easily last until 2008. In that case, the whole nation will experience great trouble. The government won't be able to do anything during this period, and we will go nowhere for two long years.

The price the nation will pay for this detour will be high.

If President Chen is really involved in corruption, there is no need for the pan-blues to demand his recall -- the pan-greens will dispose of him themselves.

There is little doubt that Ma is going to be president of Taiwan in less than two years. Why can't he just wait, and let the nation avoid a terrible political calamity? So I plead with all the people in Taiwan to calm down. Let's wait and see what the court decides.

Peter Wang
Tainan City