The pan-blue camp's propaganda machine really needs to be given an award for outstanding devotion to degenerate advertising. From President Chen Shui-bian (
From what this piece of propaganda says I take it to mean that the assassination attempt on the president was staged. This robbed the pan-blue camp of victory and the country should remain without a president until the truth is revealed.
Let's stop a moment and see what is "known" at present. From the evidence, it seems that a person or persons on a Tainan street fired homemade ammunition from a handgun at the presidential Jeep, wounding the president and vice president. Examination of the scene supports this theory. The president's wound has been confirmed as a gunshot wound.
To me, this appears as an assassination attempt but the pan-blue camp wants me to believe that the pan-green camp found an amazing sharpshooter who, with a moving target, a crowd, homemade low-quality ammunition and a vehicle's windscreen (notorious for deflecting projectiles) in the way, was able to fire two shots from a handgun. The bullets grazed Chen's stomach and, through the windscreen, inflicted a minor wound on the vice president's knee. So these two "staged" bullets were able to change the outcome of the election? Wow!
Now, if the attempt on the president's life was real, then the rest of what they claim is misguided and inappropriate. As the opposition, they should be concerned that there was an attempt on the lives of the president and the vice president, and the implications that this has for the nation.
The pan-blue camp didn't challenge the appropriateness of holding the election when the incident occurred, but now sees fit to do so.
The effect of the shooting on the election results can never accurately be determined, but the peoples' decision must be respected.
Lastly, the problem with "Taiwan's troubled democracy" is that the opposition doesn't understand the word "democracy," and thus doesn't know how to function in one.
I would suggest the pan-blue camp reads the May 20 Taipei Times editorial and Chiou Chwei-Liang's (邱垂亮) article ("When the opposition is not loyal," May 20, page 8) as an enlightening insight as to how to function as the opposition, and whether Taiwan really should remain without a president until the truth is known.
If they had done that in Sweden in 1986?
Well, you decide.
Mark Bruce
Touliu
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