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EDITORIAL: Thank goodness for Chen Shui-bian

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) may not be flavor of the month with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its supporters since his admission two weeks ago that his wife wired millions of US dollars to overseas bank accounts, but he is sure to be extremely popular over at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters at the moment.

News of Chen’s financial troubles has come at just the right time for the ruling party because it enables the KMT to divert attention from increasing discontent with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) less-than-stellar start to his term.

Dealing with low approval ratings is one thing, but after just 100 days in office, Ma has already seen his dream of economy-boosting cross-strait flights turn into a nightmare: Uni Air this week canceled its Kaohsiung-Guangzhou route because there weren’t enough passengers. Moreover, Chinese ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya’s (王光亞) letter to the world body last week seems to have torpedoed the good ships Flexibility and Pragmatism, doing irreparable damage to Ma’s UN plan, while quite possibly sinking his “modus vivendi” strategy at the same time.

Throw in rising inflation, the under-performing stock market — which has fallen around 2,000 points since May 20 — and the plummeting housing market, and one could be forgiven for questioning the authenticity of Wednesday’s United Daily News poll that gave Ma a 47 percent approval rating.

Yet we still see little or no news about Ma’s policy disasters or how the optimism brought to many by March’s electoral result has turned to despair more quickly than anyone could have imagined possible.

Instead, we are treated to round-the-clock coverage of the latest unfounded rumors about Chen, repeated footage of the former first family leaving and arriving at various locations, interviews with the latest crackpot to shout obscenities outside Chen’s apartment and detailed analysis of the kind of candy former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) likes.

Keeping Chen in the headlines is the reason why the KMT’s attack dogs, led by Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), have been trying to link the alleged money laundering to every controversial incident during Chen’s eight years as president. Doing so keeps the story alive and keeps Ma’s amateur efforts at administration off our screens.

First we heard the money could be connected to the Papua New Guinea diplomatic debacle, then it was the second phase of financial reform, and now, with those avenues exhausted, that old favorite, the SOGO department store takeover, has resurfaced once again.

What will be next, the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, perhaps? That would surely keep Chen in the limelight long enough to diffuse any serious coverage of Saturday’s protest against Ma and the KMT’s spineless policy of cross-strait surrender.

Chen’s daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) may have hit the nail on the head when, cornered by the press a couple of weeks ago, she screamed that the KMT wants to get rid of her and her family because “Chen Shui-bian is their No. 1 enemy.”

But the KMT needs to be careful what it wishes for, because once its nemesis disappears off the political radar, as he inevitably will, it will struggle to find a suitable replacement on which to focus its attacks.

If that happens, then perhaps the KMT’s lackluster governance and undermining of Taiwan’s sovereignty may finally get the kind of media attention that these issues deserve.


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