Perhaps no one grabbed attention last week than Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀), whose alleged inappropriate behavior at the funeral of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mother has been all over the print media and 24-hour television news channels.
The inexperienced first-term lawmaker from Yilan County, allegedly attended Chin Hou-hsiu’s (秦厚修) funeral on May 5 uninvited and instructed Presidential Office officials to “make better arrangements” to accommodate those who wanted to pay tribute to the deceased.
While video clips did not show Chen throwing a tantrum as some had alleged, his visit was described as an “intentional disturbance” and it snowballed into national headlines, leading to Chen’s repeated apologies, a six-month suspension by the DPP caucus and his resignation as co-convener of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
Hon Hai Technology Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) added his two cents, calling for voters to recall Chen in the wake of a mass recall campaign launched by activists against several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, who the campaigners said only do as Ma instructs and ignore their responsibilities to the public.
Chen, who, frankly speaking, could have easily avoided the controversy, has become the reluctant villain as the incident and the aftermath has somehow neutralized the recall campaign aimed at the KMT for a reason that is hard for most Taiwanese to refuse — disrespect for the deceased at a funeral.
However, Chen was not the first to mismanage or miscalculate political activities, in particular struggles to fight the Ma administration’s injustice, undemocratic practices and ill-advised policies.
The antinuclear activists’ struggle with the government regarding the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), as legitimate as the cause might be, was marred by protesters’ attempts to block lawmakers and prohibit them from leaving the legislative compound on April 29, which led to the police’s eviction of the activists.
Again, the protesters were described as rioters who resorted to violence and irrational moves.
Another example could be found in the proposed “Occupy the Taipei MRT,” which called for 33,000 people to board Tamsui Line MRT trains at the same time to protest against the government’s failure to respond to the public’s demand that construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant be halted.
Government officials immediately condemned the proposal, saying that the netizen who proposed the idea was trying to “hijack public security.” The police wasted no time bringing the alleged suspect from Chiayi to Taipei for interrogation, despite criticism that the government is resorting to clamping down on “thought crimes” to curb freedom of expression.
The cases reflect how difficult it is for the opposition and the people to challenge the administration and public policies without being smeared or seeing attention on their causes being shifted to any minor mistakes they have made, such as the blocking of the legislature.
While martial law was lifted in 1987 — before most of the protesters on the streets were born, the KMT regime is never short of tactics to oppress those who try to challenge it by using a variety of measures, including judicial prosecution and media manipulation.
Unfortunately, those tactics have always worked and have confused the public about how a controversy started and what it is all about.
Therefore, opposition politicians and civil groups will have be very careful with every word, every activity they are engaged in and every campaign they plan.
The reason is simple. The Ma administration will leave them little room for mistakes and even if they do not, rest assured that the regime will be able to make one up.
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