Politics was back to normal in Taiwan yesterday, with plenty of politicians trying to embarrass themselves. It’s hard to know which one is the most impressive:
- Legislator Li Ao (a man who can make other Taiwanese politicians look moderate) tries to flog a dead horse by claiming that President Chen Shui-bian was trying to assassinate his VP Annette Lu last year. It seems a mysterious man gave him a top secret CIA report which confirms this. How the CIA came across this information is unclear … partly because he refused to hand over the report to anyone apart from Annette Lu.
- Wang Yu-cheng – a Taipei City councillor – faked a video claiming that a mortuary was reselling funeral offerings to nearby restaurants. This little scandal has been going on for a few days, and it seems to have reached its conclusion with him being kicked out of his party, with the promise of litigation to follow. Was the fact that his friend owns a competing mortuary a factor? (more at ESWN, and INDIAC)
- An excellent bit of political grandstanding by ‘Aboriginal’ legislator May Chin – who is visiting the (in)famous Yasukuni Shrine in Japan to demand that the names of Taiwanese Aboriginals are removed. This is a reaction to the idiotic visit of the TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang to the Shrine to honour the Taiwanese war dead a couple of months ago (which, in turn, was a reaction to Lien Chan’s trip to China).
- Three new members were added to the cabinet today. Two of them failed to get elected to the legislature last December. If the cabinet is made up of people who aren’t competent enough to become legislators, then this country is in deep trouble.
Personal Note: I’m off on my holidays for a fortnight … so things will be quiet here for a while.
David,
Thanks for the link and the new info about zhe ge, zhe ge, zhe ge, Li Ao.
I didn’t speculate on the reasons for Wang’s behavior in my post, but I tend to think that he did it “because he could.” Having hosted that TV show (whose name is hard to directly translate into English) for so long and then simultaneously being a “reporter” and a “lawmaker”/-breaker, well, I think that all that power simply got away from him. Just look at the picture (via ETToday) that I posted of him crying his freaking eyes out.
He played himself. What went around came back around. He played with fire and got burned.
But he still hasn’t gotten what he deserves. In addition to being kicked out of his party (Taipei Times says he “quit,” but Chinese-language media says otherwise) and having his show canceled, he should be forced to pay restitution to those whose businesses he harmed and do jail time. No “community service” for the Wang-ker. What he did was done on purpose, and every step of the way he denied it, digging himself deeper and deeper with lies about his daughter being threatened, etc.
On May Chin, well, “grandstanding” is just about the only thing she knows how to do (besides stealing other women’s husbands). After all, she’s an actress by profession. She’s gonna get (a big mess of) egg on her own face sooner or later.
Hey, have fun on your vacation!