"The Thai laborer's riot and the KRTC scandal revealed something else about the DPP government. Besides being incompetent, we now know that it is corrupt, too ... The government is rotten, rotten and rotten, right?" Ma said.
Ma said that although the DPP government had publicly promised to reform the country, it had turned corrupt behind the scenes.
"Please vote out the DPP government in the Dec. 3 elections!" he said.
Lien criticized the DPP for stoking ethnic divisions, as well as encouraging class warfare with its recent decision to slash the 18 percent interest rate enjoyed by retired civil servants.
"Chen's approval rating is as low as 20-something percent now, and I believe soon it will be down to 18 percent -- a figure he cares about so much these days," Lien said.
Delivering his speech in Tai-wanese, Wang attributed the rally's success to its clear themes.
"Seeing so many people here today made me understand that you still have hope for Taiwan ... We urge all of you to cast your votes for pan-blue candidates, who love Taiwan truly," he told the crowd.
Disillusionment
Sitting on a curb while cheering at the speeches, Chou Liang-chin (
"The government has been so incompetent for the past five years, and Chen Shui-bian is only good at cheating us of our votes ... I am so heartbroken," he told the Taipei Times.
But although he regretted voting for Chen in last year's presidential election and had shown up for the KMT rally, Chou said he doubted that the KMT would do a better job.
"I don't think there can be a clean government in Taiwan," Chou said. "All politicians think only about how to fill their pockets with money."
At the end of Ma's speech, a model of the presidential office was presented on stage. Ma, Wang, Yuk and Chou used hammers to tear through the model's outside layer, symbolizing the pan-blue camp's determination to fight against the "corrupt" DPP government.
The rally ended with the crowd shouting the slogans "Oppose corruption, Save Taiwan," and "Win back Taiwan."
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