President Chen “Retreats for a Moment” from the Glare of the World

As President Chen Shui-bian accepted the opposition party’s demand for the recount of the ballots on March 23, Taiwan could avoid political catastrophe. But the political chaos will continue for the time being because tense confrontations between the ruling and opposition parties are easily expected over the period when they will reexamine the ballots.

▽ Announcement of Recount

President Chen disclosed in a meeting of the heads of five branches of government at 10 a.m. that he will accept the opposition party’s demand for ‘immediate reexamination of the ballots’.

Taking off his shirt and showing the operated marks of bullet wound to the heads, President Chen tried to stress that the shooting incident is not a ‘self-made drama’, saying that “the reason that I cannot but do this is that there are a lot of suspicions at home and abroad.”

He also outraged at “the claims that he rigged votes,” describing the allegations as “so great an insult to my integrity.”

President Chen announced a statement this afternoon, saying that “should the results of the recount appear, I will abide by the decision. But the presidential candidate Lien Chan will also have to do so.”

Hearing the report that President Chen accepted the recount demand, about 10,000 opposition supporters who have demonstrated in front of the presidential office for three days cheered, shouting “Victory! Victory! Recount immediately!”

▽ Collision between the Ruling and Opposition Parties

With President Chen’s acceptance of the recount demand, the parliament steering committee meeting was held this day, but there was a fierce collision between the ruling party and the opposition legislators surrounding the agenda and the revision of ‘the Dismissal Law of President and Vice President’ for the introduction of the ‘administration recount system.’

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party proposed in a revised bill that ‘if the margin of victory is below one percent, one can demand for a part or whole recount to the administration within seven days from the election day. The DPP also made a proposal that whether or not they will apply this article to this election can be decided through three consecutive discussions on this bill.

In response to this, the opposition Kookmin-Chinmin Coalition said that “it is a trick designed to delay indefinitely the revised bill,” and asserted that they “should reexamine the ballots as early as March 25 after approving the bill through two consecutive discussions today.”

Finally, the chairman of the parliament steering committee, Liapungda(?) of the KMP, declared adjournment, and the legislators of both parties fought a fierce fight throwing papers and office fixtures.

▽ Prospect on the Political World After Recount

The reason that President Chen adopted a strategy of ‘direct breakthrough’ through re-examining the ballots is that he was driven into a situation that he could not endure the demonstrations and the glares from at home and abroad surrounding the suspicions on the shooting incident and the rigging of election.

Most of all, President Chen’s acceptance was the result of the pressure of the United States of America, the political analysts said. The U.S. State Department declared on March 21 the next day of the election that “We congratulate on the fact that Taiwan had a democratic election.” But they didn’t announce the message about congratulations on winning the election.

Particularly, after the representative of the U.S. in Taiwan met the candidate Lien and had a secret talk for an hour, he was known to advise Chen ‘to accept the opposition party’s demand’ and ‘the peaceful resolution on the matter’.

Political critic Hoo Jung-shin said, that “It is the U.S. that President Chen is afraid of, not the candidate Lien or the demonstrations by the supporters of the opposition party.” And he added that “the reason that the candidate Lien took a strong attitude against President Chen is due to the strong support of the U.S.”

But if the oppositions between the ruling and opposition parties are not resolved within the big framework of recount, it is expected that the political unrest will continue for a considerable time. Apart from the announcement, the opposition party is planning to press President Chen by having a rally mobilizing one million people on March 27 to protest against the illegal election.

Yoo-Seong Hwang yshwang@donga.com