20111102 EDITORIAL : Viciousness scales new heights

EDITORIAL : Viciousness scales new heights

This year’s pre-election mudslinging has reached new levels, with accusations from both sides flying like razorblade confetti. The blue-green divide is deeper than ever, with a notable addition, as the People First Party, which stands little chance of gaining the presidency under Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), will likely rile things up enough to make it interesting.

The accusations started out like junior-high school taunts, with former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman-turned-party-hater Shih Ming-teh (施明德) insinuating that DPP Chaiperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was a lesbian, maybe because she’s not married, she’s a bit bookish and she doesn’t swoon when Shih enters a room.

Nevertheless, it’s a moot point and shouldn’t be brought into election discourse.

However, the accusations took a new seriousness when Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) filed a lawsuit against Ma and former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起), accusing them of treason by conspiring with China to push forward unification.

Although the lawsuit will likely serve as just another election tool, its penalties are rather harsh — death or life in prison for Ma and Su should they be found guilty.

The lawsuit stems from Ma’s proposed peace pact with China and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi’s (楊毅) prompt, positive reaction to the idea.

Shortly after the almost unanimous condemnation of Ma’s peace proposal and Huang’s lawsuit, Ma decided to turn the issue into a Mainlander-versus-Taiwanese pseudo-ethnic issue rather than address the problems inherent in his proposal.

This prompted another verbal barrage from Huang, who called the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) “racist” if it thought the only reason people opposed the peace pact plan was that it was put forward by a so-called “Mainlander.” The DPP also reacted harshly to this characterization.

With comments by former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) on Sunday praising Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) dictatorship and the KMT as a necessary prerequisite for Taiwan’s democratic and economic development, the war of words only looks to get worse. The DPP and KMT look like they are living on different planets when it comes to interpreting Taiwan’s history and present-day politics.

In the meantime, the KMT is continuing the accusations of corruption against the cash-strapped DPP that worked so well for it in the 2008 election, with the issue of DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan’s (蘇嘉全) farmhouse being its favorite topic, probably because it can’t dig up much else. The Control Yuan has even decided to go after the DPP for accepting piggy banks from children, a violation of election laws.

All these accusations and politically barbed comments aside, the real issues at stake are which party can run the country best. The KMT has had its chance over the past three-and-a-half years. Some people agree with what it has been doing, especially those who own companies that have benefited from the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement’s “early harvest” list. However, many others, such as farmers, people whose homes have been forcibly confiscated and those who support Taiwan’s sovereignty, do not support it.

If voters can sift through all the accusations and political doggerel, they face a stark reality — voting for Ma means voting for political negotiations with Beijing under the “one China” principle.