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Letter: Shih scratches the wrong itch

If former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) really loved Taiwan, he would start mobilizing the masses to prevent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou(馬英九) from running for president in 2008, otherwise Ma will betray Taiwan to China for "ultimate unification."

Shih should also stage a massive demonstration against China for deploying some 800 ballistic missiles in an attempt to destroy Taiwan and for diplomatically isolating Taiwan from the rest of the world.

If Shih sincerely opposed greediness and corruption, he would not keep quiet about the KMT's possession of questionable "partisan assets" worth nearly US$20 billion, as reported in Wealth Magazine in 1998. Shih has not raised any questions about Ma having sold some US$200 million of these assets. As a wild hunter, Shih tries to shoot at the cat but leaves the tiger alone.

If Shih truly cherished democracy, he should let the Constitution and the judiciary decide President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) fate. No one -- not even Chen or Shih -- is above the law.

A one-day silent sit-in is reasonable. A prolonged, round-the-clock, noisy sit-in or nationwide strike is an abuse of democracy and a nuisance to the general public. Let the Constitution do its job. If it does not do the job, let's amend it or scrap it and make a new one.

If Shih honestly respected ethnic harmony, he would not add a pan-red camp to the existing pan-green and pan-blue camps in Taiwan. Also, Sept. 8, the anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, would have been a better choice than Sept. 9, the anniversary of Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) death, to start the "silent sit-in."

One should be smart enough "to scratch the itchy skin and not scratch the non-itchy skin to bleeding," as a Taiwanese saying goes.

Charles Hong

Columbus, Ohio
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