Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Taiwan Legislature Dissolves Into Chaos, Part II

Taiwan Legislature Dissolves Into Chao, Part II
Bevin Chu
January 22, 2007

If you thought the conduct of the "Democratic Progressive Party" was undemocratic and regressive before, wait til you read the following.

The international media covered only the assault and battery that pro Taiwan independence ruling regime legislators committed against pro reunification opposition legislators.

The international media failed to cover a second DPP offense even more outrageous. After assaulting opposition legislators with their fists and their shoes, DPP legislators padlocked the doors to the legislature with a motorcycle lock, preventing the speaker from reentering the room and calling for a vote on an opposition sponsored election reform bill.

You read that right. Your eyes were not deceiving you.

As you read the Taipei Times' coverage of the DPP's outrageous behavior below, note how the Taipei Times struggles mightily to avoid reporting the unflattering facts by referring to them obliquely instead of directly.

DPP Legislator offers Wang an apology

Published on Taipei Times
Monday, Jan 22, 2007

Comment: Even the title of the Taipei Times article reflects its determined effort to avoid exposing the ugly behavior of the Taiwan independence movement.

Why wasn't the title of the article "DPP Legislator locks Speaker Wang out of Legislature," instead of "DPP Legislator offers Wang an apology."

In fact, if you scan the title of every Taipei Times article on the DPP attacks on opposition legislators, you will discover that they consistently refrain from describing what actually happened.

Besides, as you will discover below, Tsai Chi-fang, the DPP legislator who allegedly offered Wang an apology, never really apologized. His "apology" consisted of patently absurd rationalizations for his behavior.

Taipei Times: At around 11pm, the main doors to the legislative floor were locked with a motorcycle lock to prevent Wang from taking the legislative floor and conducting a vote on the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法).

Comment: Note the deliberate use of the passive voice, and even worse, the passive voice with no subject?

The Taipei Times wrote:

"the main doors to the legislative floor were locked with a motorcycle lock."

"were locked"?

By whom? Elves?

Shouldn't the Taipei Times have written:

"At around 11pm, DPP legislators locked the main doors to the legislative floor with a motorcycle lock to prevent Wang from taking the legislative floor and conducting a vote on the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法)."

Why didn't it?

Why to avoid having to clearly identify the offender, of course.

Using a motorcycle lock, DPP legislators lock Speaker Wang Jin-ping out of the hall, preventing the legislature from voting on an election reform bill

After locking the speaker out of the hall, DPP legislators conceal the lock with curtains

DPP legislator Wang Hsing-nan, the David Duke of Taiwan

Taipei Times: Earlier in the day, Wang was almost hit by shoes thrown by DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧) when he was surrounded at the podium by legislators.

Comment: Ditto.

Wang "was almost hit?"

Why didn't the Taipei Times write:

"Earlier in the day, DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧) flung her shoes at KMT Speaker Wang and almost succeeding in hitting Wang in the face while he stood on the podium surrounded by legislators."

Again, it was no accident. The Taipei Times wanted to diminish the negative impact of the DPP's outrageous conduct, which it would have preferred not to report at all, but which it realized it couldn't get away with not reporting.

Taipei Times: Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators later cut open the lock.

KMT legislators later cut the DPP lock using bolt cutters

KMT legislator Hung Hsiu-chu shows reporters the lock the DPP used to lock KMT speaker Wang out of the hall

Tsai told a press conference yesterday that he and his colleagues bought the locks and locked the doors "in a bid to protect Wang from being hurt during conflicts between legislators of different camps."

DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang, the George Wallace of Taiwan

Tsai said "this was everyone's idea" and locking the doors was "a necessary move."

"What we had in mind at the time was that we could not let the speaker in [to the legislature]," he said.

Wang condemned the chaos after the session ended fruitlessly.

Comment: The behavior of the Taiwan independence leadership is so mind-boggling it leaves one almost speechless.

To get a sense of how outrageous their behavior is, imagine the same event unfolding in Washington, DC, if you can.

The White House is currently occupied by Texas Republican George W. Bush.

Congress is currently controlled by a Democratic majority, led by California Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

Imagine Republican congressmen locking Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi out of the halls of congress by looping a
motorcycle lock through the door handles!

This is the
"lively / thriving / vibrant democracy" that Benevolent Global Hegemonists on the Neoconservative right and Humanitarian Interventionists on the liberal left demand that Americans shed their blood preserving.

Democracies, as
James Madison astutely noted, are spectacles of turbulence and contention incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, as short in their lives as violent in their death.

Is Taiwan's grotesque spectacle of turbulence and contention worth the loss of even one American life?

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