Half a million people took to the streets in Taipei on Saturday to demand that President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan step down.It’s the strongest display of opposition yet to what is billed as Ma’s “sell-Taiwan” China policy.
Almost all the protesters are supporters of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and its ally Taiwan Solidarity Union.Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the opposition party, led the demonstration, which she promised to repeat, come November 3 when Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), arrives in Taipei for talks with his counterpart P. K. Chiang.
Of course, everybody knows Ma can’t be ousted as president.And he can keep Liu as his premier as long as he wishes.Tsai’s real purpose in organizing the protest march was to consolidate the power base of the opposition party and expand it, if possible, to face elections of 21 magistrates and mayors across the country scheduled for late next year or a little more than a year from now.She succeeded, though not to her satisfaction.It’s former President Chen Shui-bian who was a spoiler of sorts.
At first, practically all DPP leaders didn’t want Chen, who has already resigned from the party for involvement in a multimillion-dollar money laundering scandal, to march with them.But Chen, the consummate political survivor, forced his way into the ranks of protestors and was cheered on by hardcore independent activists who form a small minority but have a disproportionately large clout among card-carrying members of the opposition party.As they marched, they never tired of shouting “Go, go Ah-Bian” and “Ah-Bian for President.”All this put Tsai’s appeal for support a little out of focus.
As a matter of fact, little damage was done President Ma by Saturday’s rally against him.Despite its flex of the muscle, the opposition has added little to its 40 percent-plus support of voters.It may win over more swing voters, if Ma fails – and it’s certain that he will – to get Taiwan out of its economic woes in a year’s time.
But Ma must take note that 17 percent of the respondents in a recent survey said it served Zhang Mingqing, ARATS vice chairman, right to get himself mobbed at Tainan.Chen was cheered by his fans for calling for a citizen’s arrest of Chen Yunlin.These are the people who hate Ma as their mainlander president.
（本文刊載於97.10.27 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）
彭蕙仙
胡思聰
林祖嘉
王順民
張瑞雄
