The View from Taiwan has a post about the death threats that were issued over the weekend against KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou in the southern city of Gowshung. Let me go on record as saying that this is outrageous; the underground disc jockeys who made those threats should be hunted down, prosecuted, and thrown unceremoniously into a prison cell.
Which they can then share with KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou and former KMT chairman Lien Chan. Both of whom are ALSO guilty of issuing public death threats against political rivals.
The interesting thing about the latter two is that whenever they issue statements that someone should be murdered, the China Post always excuses it by claiming that the Mandarin expressions that they used can be interpreted in other, more innocuous ways.
At that point, it becomes very difficult for a non-Mandarin speaker such as myself to evaluate whether we’re being given the truth or a whole lotta disingenuous spin.* Let’s be honest: It’s a bit ambiguous if someone uses the common English expression, "politician John Smith is going to be toast". Of course it can mean that they want to defeat Smith politically, but it can also mean something much more sinister.
Having said that though, my suspicion is that there’s probably only one interpretation for a "dare-to-die assassination squad".
* The smart money would bet that it’s disingenuous spin. C’mon, it’s the China Post we’re talkin’ here!
UPDATE (June 17/06): The news on Thursday was that Ma Ying-jeou apologized for declaring that President Chen would be "toppled" and meet with a "foul death" if he didn’t resign from office. I was going to give him credit for that here, but then I noticed that he did so only after CHARGES were filed against him. In essence, Ma said, "So sorry – now go arrest somebody else."
Not sure if that really deserves much of a pat on the back.
Meanwhile, Friday’s papers informed us that four of the accused underground radio stations were raided and three of their talk show hosts were arrested. One of them asked why she was being arrested, while pro-KMT stations that advocated assassinating President Chen or former president Lee were left untouched by the law.
Good question. Doesn’t necessarily mean that these three shouldn’t have been arrested, but it’s still a good question.
A better question is what’s to be done with Ma. Politically, it’s impossible to arrest him. You’d have riots on your hands. President Chen would be accused of being a dictator, at home and abroad.
Arrest Ma? Some pretty serious consequences involved, there.
The alternative, however, is also unpalatable. It’s patently unfair to punish three common folk while letting the chairman of the KMT get off scot-free. To do so does violence to the principle of Equality before the Law.
As I said: What to do, what to do?
UPDATE (June 20/06): The Taiwan News dismisses the statements allegedly made by the underground radio stations, claiming that they were made "tongue-in-cheek". That may be so, or it may just amount to special pleading. I honestly can’t say.
But even if the threats WERE done with tongue planted in cheek, they still constitute a threat to social peace. One lone crazy took the KMT’s hyperbole seriously in 2004, and managed to single-handedly cause a whole heap of trouble. An air passenger who makes a bomb threat quickly learns, "I was just joking," isn’t an acceptable excuse.
UPDATE (June 24/06): One of the alleged death threats made at one of the radio stations consisted of an elderly woman calling in and calling for Taiwanese to "rise up in rebellion and raise our hoes." Sorry, but that doesn’t sound much worse than Pat Buchanan’s "peasants and pitchforks" comments a few years back.
Yesterday’s papers also covered the antics of Chiang Lien-fu, KMT member:
One lawmaker…took a small doll resembling [Taiwan’s President] Chen to the podium. [He] then whipped out a toy gun and pointed it at the doll’s head and fired.
"The 23 million people here [in Taiwan] will help you end your life," Chiang said as he pulled the trigger.
(Image from the June 24, 2006 ed of the Taipei Times.)
Classy. Must really burn him up that that KMT assassin in ’04 was such a bad shot.
UPDATE #4 (June 24/06): I’ve been remiss in not pointing to Maddog’s post on the subject, where he provides a pretty thorough accounting of KMT threats / violence against political opponents. But get this: That laundry list doesn’t start from 50 years ago, but from 2004.
UPDATE (June 28/06): Yesterday’s Taiwan News had an editorial listing some of the placard slogans at an "Impeach Chen" rally:
“Execute [President] Chen Shui-bian!”
“Liquidate Chen Shui-bian!”
“Liquidate [President Chen’s wife] Wu Shu-chen!”
“Assassinate Bian!”
“Drink A-bian’s blood!” [A-bian is President Chen’s nickname]
Interestingly, yesterday’s Taiwan News points out that James Soong has tended to use less violent rhetoric towards President Chen than KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, despite the fact that Soong has advocated more confrontational tactics than Ma.
Don’t know how long that’ll continue: Today’s Taipei Times quotes Soong as saying, "I would like to shed my blood for Taiwan if the bloodless revolution [to remove President Chen from office] fails."
i-1
Foreigner, you must remember that these claims are coming from the “boys who cry wolf every chance they get” club and that no evidence has been presented. The China Post’s excuses are meaningless as well. (Yeah, I saw your footnote.)
Why would the party infamous for the “228 Incident” and “White Terror” use words like kill, die, dead, death, to death, bullet, gun, shoot, etc. if others would do an equal job of carrying the non-murderous meaning they supposedly intend — or are they simply inarticulate mickeyfickeys falling back on their far-more-vulgar-than-what-I-just-avoided standards?
*
*
*
A great point I hadn’t considered. A TRULY reformed person (or political party) that has a history of violence would avoid using violent rhethoric so as not to give cause for alarm.
Thanks for bringing that up.
Good post. I gotta start my round ups again, so you all can get the traffic you deserve.
*
*
*
Thanks. I’ve really missed your weekly round-ups. The time required to put them together must’ve been enormous though, so I certainly understand why you had to cut back.
(Cut back? Ha! When Michael Turton cuts back on blogging, he STILL makes the rest of us look like slackers!)
Just a quick comment on Ma’s “public death threat.” I’m certainly no fan of Ma, but his phrasing is a very common expression in Mandarin that could be translated as “heading for a big fall/defeat” and could in no way be construed as an actual death threat. I was pretty surprised when I saw the clip of that speech on the news–it sounds pretty crude coming from a major political figure in a public statement (something you’d expect from Song Chu-yu, but not Ma), and he said it in a rather nasty tone, but again definitely not a death threat.
*
*
*
I don’t speak Mandarin, so I’m not going to argue with someone who does. What I WILL say is that some of the English language media disagrees – they’re saying that Ma’s statements can be interpreted as threats.
Which gets back to the point that Maddog made earlier in this thread. Everyone would agree that it’s pretty innocent if an ordinary Taiwanese acquaintance says to me, “I know where you live.”
But if a Taiwanese GANGSTER tells me the same thing, it instantly takes on the patina of a threat.