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`All politics is baseball,' Chen Shui-bian says

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday waves at the crowd receiving him after his charter plane landed at Kiribati's International Airport. PHOTO: CNA

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that the opposition parties should work with the governing party as though they were playing baseball when he addressed Kiribati's parliament yesterday afternoon.

"Together we stand, divided we fall," Chen said. "Only negotiations can comfort and unite different voices, and make them become one."

Chen made his remarks at Kiribati's parliament, with the country's 42 representatives present. The president explained his comment by likening politics to a baseball game.

He said that the governing party is like the pitcher, and the opposition parties are helping the pitcher by playing defense. Everybody must work hand in hand to win the game.

In addition, the president said that Kiribati is where the first ray of sunlight is spotted every day. Therefore, he said, the people of Kiribati, or I-Kiribati, can be regarded as the people of the sun, while Taiwanese people call themselves "children of the yam" because Taiwan's main island is shaped like one.

"People of the sun and children of the yam are symbols of the long-lived prosperity of the earth, and a guarantee of the long-term relationship between Taiwan and Kiribati," Chen told the Kiribati members of parliament.

It was the third day of Chen's trip to the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu. As usual, Chen's schedule began early in the morning.

After a 70-minute flight, Chen's Boeing 737-800 charter plane landed at Kiribati's International Airport.

Although it is an "international airport," its runway is actually part of a local highway, but is a lot wider and flatter than than most at the point where planes are supposed to land.

In addition, there is no tower service for pilots, and there are no fences or walls around the airport, so people perform all kinds of activities on the runway, as there are only a few flights that land in Kiribati each day.

Therefore, incoming pilots need to conduct a "fly-by" to make sure that everything is clear on the ground and to let the local people know that a plane is landing, before they actual land.

Chen and his delegation did not have to go through customs, and were authorized to leave the airport directly from the parking ramp.

Like his stay in Majuro, Marshall Islands, Chen's visit to Tarawa was occasioned by heavy rains all day.

However, the rain did not stop I-Kiribati from thronging the streets and greeting Chen and his delegation by cheering and yelling "Ni hao?" loudly along Tarawa's main road.

Peter Gabpuruea, a 26-year-old I-Kiribati driver for Taiwan's Embassy, told the Taipei Times that it had not rained for more than a week prior to Chen's arrival yesterday.

For islanders, especially I-Kiribati, rain is important because it is the only source of drinking water and is also used for many other purposes in daily life.

Chen said more than once that the first character in his given name means "water," and fortune tellers told him that he would always bring along lots of water wherever he went.

Gabpuruea burst into laughter when he heard the story.
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