03.03.06
Idiotwatch I: Recall or Impeach?
One outcome from the scrapping of the NUC is that we can expect a renewed bout of idiotic behaviour from politicians of all varieties over the next few weeks.
First up are the KMT and PFP legislators who obviously feel that Chen Shui-bian’s actions are so disgusting that recalling the president isn’t enough. Impeachment isn’t enough either. They’ve got to do both:
President Chen will be charged with treason for impeachment, said the PFP lawmaker.
By scrapping the NUC, Lu charged, the president further split Taiwan, ruined the mutual trust between Taipei and Washington and destroyed Taiwan’s international credibility.
“That constitutes treason against the state,” Lu pointed out.
His Kuomintang counterpart, Pan Wei-kang, reserved all- out support for the PFP move.
“We support a recall or an impeachment of the president,” Pan said. But, she added, the Kuomintang has already initiated the recall.
Priority has to be given the recall, Pan said. “We need consultation before we’ll go all out to impeach the president,” she added.
Of course, neither of these actions will succeed because the pan-Blues don’t have a big enough majority in the legislature to push them through. I imagine the DPP politicians will enjoy voting both moves down; given that everything they propose gets voted down in the legislature, it’ll make a nice change for them to be doing the blocking for a change.
The only real question is this: will Chen experience a Korea-like spike in popularity due to idiot lawmakers attempting to impeach him?
Update: Rank has also been following this bizarre little saga.
STOP_George said,
March 3, 2006 at 1:56 pm
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I don’t know about Chen’s popularity, but this has got to be damaging for the pan-blues.
I’ve noticed that do-nothing Ma has pulled out his halo once again and is asking for peace, understanding, an end to divisive politics (insert harp music here). Hmm…well maybe he should be having a talk with his collegues and wasn’t he the one that said that the NUC was a serious breach of the status quo?
All I can say is continue on, pan-blues — continue on!!!
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sun bin said,
March 4, 2006 at 11:44 pm
http://news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/Moment/newfocus-index/0,3687,9503040071+95030405+0+215319+0,00.html
chinatimes agrees with you this time.
The View from Taiwan said,
March 5, 2006 at 12:06 pm
just over a year ago. Not only does he not know what’s in the Constitution, he doesn’t know about the ammendments that he made to the Constitution (Article 1 of the ammendments no less - hard to miss you would think) Don’t miss his review of theImpeach vs Recall issue: Of course, neither of these actions will succeed because the pan-Blues don’t have a big enough majority in the legislature to push them through. I imagine the DPP politicians will enjoy voting both moves down; given that everything they
STOP_George said,
March 5, 2006 at 12:23 pm
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The VOA has officially apologized over the misleading statements it made about “abolishing” and “ceasing to function”:
Voice of America apologizes for its incorrect report
STAFF WRITER WITH CNA , WASHINGTON
Sunday, Mar 05, 2006,Page 3
Advertising Advertising
The Voice of America (VOA) yesterday issued a statement apologizing for its recent incorrect report concerning the National Unification Council (NUC), which led to misunderstandings between Taiwan and the US.
The VOA, which is partially owned by the US government, posted the statement on its Web site and expressed its regret…
…The VOA’s correspondent in Taiwan filed a story on Feb. 27 saying that Presidential Office Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) and National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-ren (邱義仁) had told reporters there was no distinction between “ceasing” and “abolishing” the NUC and unification guidelines….
If the State Department wrote that statement because of this VOA report, then I am, once again, stunned by the incompetence of the Bush administration. The U.S. did not even attempt to contact Taipei, for chrissakes!!
Huang also confirmed that Taipei was not notified in advance before the State Department issued the statement endorsed by deputy spokesman Adam Ereli on Thursday.
Considering that the State Department’s statement on Thursday went so far as to drop CSB’s title of “President”, I think an apology is in order to Chen Shui-bian.
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Michael Turton said,
March 5, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Probably get a little spike, but the whole thing will only increase public distrust of democracy.
Which is not a good thing at all.
Michael
Politics from Taiwan » No-confidence in democracy said,
June 12, 2006 at 6:46 pm
[...] Anyone who watches Taiwanese democracy will have a little bit of trouble taking Taiwanese Legislators seriously - so the latest threat to recall President Chen could just be seen as politicians doing what politicians do (i.e. ranting in front of a TV camera) … after all it’s been a whole 3 months since the pan-Blue opposition announced they would recall Chen. [...]
MankinD said,
March 3, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Too late