Another Taiwanese Politician Threatens Suicide

OK, this is starting to resemble bad soap opera:

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman John Kuan (關中) yesterday dismissed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accusations that he had bribed voters, vowing to commit suicide if the rival party could back its claims.

[…]

"I will accept my punishment and commit seppuku at the party’s headquarters if they can present evidence that I have bribed others," Guan told a press conference at KMT headquarters. "The two legislators should also end their lives if they cannot prove their allegations."

Seppuku refers to the Japanese ritual of committing suicide by disembowelment.

First Alex Fai, now this guy.  Well, I actually DO remember Ma Ying-jeou’s father made a similar threat a few years ago.  Don’t recall this case, although I probably wasn’t paying attention at the time:

Many also remember that last October, a Central Election Commission member recommended by the People First Party, Chao Shu-chien (趙叔鍵), also offered to commit seppuku "to defend the dignity of an academic" if the commission voted on whether the two planned referendums should be held alongside the January legislative election.

Sunday’s Taipei Times has a piece on how all of this trivializes the issue of suicide, and of course I’m not going to argue with that.  But the frequency of these threats recently causes me to wonder:  Is this a part of traditional Chinese political culture, or a part of Japanese culture that was grafted on locally?  Is there some kind of significance to the fact that members of the KMT and People First Party should specifically threaten seppuku, when both those political parties tend to feel an abhorrence of all things Japanese?   And lastly, have there been any cases in Taiwan within living memory where someone has actually followed through?

I don’t pretend to know.  Hey, I just live here.

UPDATE (Mar 17/08):  Last night, I tried to imagine how we would react to this kind of ploy in the West.  First of all, I’m pretty certain we’d consider the politician completely nuts.  Beyond that though, mental health professionals would probably be given air time to voice their disapproval.  Support groups for families of suicide victims would be apoplectic.  People whose lives had been affected by suicide would write angry (or distraught) letters – and the politician would be forced to apologize.

That that doesn’t happen here is interesting.  Different cultural attitudes towards suicide, perhaps?  Or is it that civil society is weaker here, so the type of pressure I’ve outlined simply isn’t brought to bear?

UPDATE (Apr 4/08):  OK, this isn’t a politician, but…damn:

On Wednesday, Liao Shu-hsin (廖述炘), the director of a pro-independence underground radio station in Taipei, allegedly immolated himself in his grief over the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) loss in the presidential election. Liao reportedly felt that his dream of seeing a “Republic of Taiwan” established was no longer possible.

UPDATE (Apr 5/08):  More on the sad case of Liao Shu-hsin in today’s Taipei Times.