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EDITORIAL: KMT's election strategy is all lies

The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) campaign to paint the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in particular, as power-hungry lunatics sank to a new low on Tuesday when the KMT released a list of 15 election "tactics" it said the DPP may resort to as the legislative and presidential elections approach.

The "tactics" included assassinating its own presidential candidate, bombing its own headquarters and kidnapping, poisoning or arranging traffic accidents for its own members.

The list came hot on the heels of news that KMT vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) allegedly told American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt about the assassination rumor.

Add to that KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung's (丁守中) allegation that Chen would spark a bird-flu crisis to prevent Taiwanese businessmen based in China from returning to vote, and the conclusion is that there is only one party that is beginning to sound like a bunch of lunatics.

It is somewhat ironic that the KMT should accuse the DPP of such dastardly behavior when the listed tactics read like a chronology of KMT deeds during the nation's period of democratization.

The DPP has no history of election-related violence and it -- along with Chen -- has accepted defeat gracefully whenever voters have rejected its candidates.

Opposition supporters will point to the assassination attempt on Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on the eve of the 2004 presidential election to back the KMT's claims, but lengthy police investigations identified a lone suspect, while the unlawful 319 shooting "truth" commission only served to create a string of ludicrous conspiracy theories and not one shred of credible evidence.

The images of a "dirty" DPP and a "power-crazed" Chen are simply the product of the pro-unification media and the KMT's propaganda machine. The KMT has decades of experience in control and manipulation of the media and remains extremely adept at it.

For an example of how these two powerful institutions work in tandem to minimize bad press for the KMT, one need only look at what happened when news broke that Siew had told Burghardt that the KMT's insistence on two-step voting would mean the DPP's UN referendum would fail. Evidence that it is working to suppress Taiwan internationally in line with China's goals is not something the KMT wants occupying the headlines.

The next day, without providing evidence, KMT Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) accused the government of bugging the offices of high-level opposition figures, while a barrage of "dirty trick" rumors hit the media.

Journalists took the bait and voila -- the KMT's treacherous behavior was drowned out.

Go back to October when Hong Kong movie star Jimmy Wang (王羽) accused the KMT of asking him to assassinate former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) while he was in hiding in the US.

The following day, the ever-willing Su -- again with hearsay as "evidence" -- alleged that the president was trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Then in February, when he was indicted, then KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou(馬英九) announced he would run for president on the same day.

The pattern is hard to miss.

As Joseph Goebbels said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

That is why so many people have come to believe the economy is in dire straits.

Let's just hope that, come election time, voters are astute enough to see through the series of ridiculous accusations and choose candidates who have their and Taiwan's best interests at heart.
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