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LETTERS: What the gods have in store

A few days ago, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) warned that those planning to vote for KMT candidates in the upcoming elections will receive no recompense from the gods.

To a foreign observer, this may be nothing more than a tactic intended to scare the idol-worshipping populace, which constitutes not a small portion of voters in Taiwan, away from voting for opposition candidates and especially in the context of vote-buying.

But a moment's reflection reveals a psychological context that has more significance than mere campaign tactics would suggest.

To Hsieh and many DPP intellectuals and freedom-fighters, the struggle for democracy in the last 30 or more years has been long and hard, paid with many precious lives and untold woe -- certainly a tradition not to be bartered away for a mere sum of money.

To sell a ballot for money -- an obscene tradition established long ago by the KMT regime -- in a supposedly enlightened state, would mean again immolating freedom-lover Cheng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), again murdering Professor Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), again executing or incarcerating the victims of the White Terror and again molesting the victims of the 228 Incident.

These were atrocities committed against the people of Taiwan -- but the KMT would like us to forgive and forget.

Forgive we can, but forget we cannot, even though the KMT would like to think that we are, by our very nature, forgetful.

They seem to think -- rightly and regrettably so to a great extent -- that we love money, and that for a bottle of soy sauce or a small sum of money we would enslave ourselves and our children.

This explains the use of the millions of dollars that the KMT legislative candidates are getting from their party, a fact even the KMT spokesman dared not deny on camera.

This explains why KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), arch-enemy of Taiwan's democratic movement, posed with a cocky grin and assured reporters on camera that he would raise the national flag in front of the Presidential Office before Jan. 1, 2009, even after he had just shamelessly exhibited his shiftiness on the voting process and on the referendums.

Vote-buying in Taiwan is rampant but conducted in a secretive manner. It is sometimes communicated through passwords. Local gangsters and thugs are usually the enforcers. Under the circumstances, grassroots voters often capitulate and take the money.

Willingly or unwillingly, however, selling one's ballot is an act that compromises Taiwan's future.

The most severe act that the gods can inflict on Taiwan is none other than sharing the lot of Hong Kong -- or perhaps making us routinely trample on our forebears who died for us, an act KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) does daily to his uncle, who was murdered in cold blood by Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) soldiers.

Yang Chunhui

Salt Lake City, Utah
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