Martial Law? Delayed election?
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A-bian turned the heat way up on the referendum/legislative election issues, while others are trying to calm the situation. This post isn't much, but it should bring you up to speed.
Chen raises martial law specter (Taipei Times)
Taiwan's president vows not to reimpose martial law to end vote dispute (China Post)
Hsieh asks central, local governments to stop threats (Taipei Times)
Dispute escalates over election voting format (China Post)
Lu: Let's not go down that road again (Chinese, TVBS)
Ma: I'll respond when things are calmed down, Hsieh should say something (Chinese, CNA)
Ma: Don't pay too much attention to A-bian on this (Chinese, CNA)
A-bian: CEC will discuss postponing the election (Chinese, CRI)
Wang: The legislature would have to pass a law to delay the election (Chinese, CNA)
KMT legislator Su Chi: A-bian's already started to get ready for martial law (Chinese, CRI)
4 comments:
Find Monday night's "Talking Show" (大話新聞) here (the video should be available sometime Tuesday), and see what Chen really said. I'll try to remember to post a direct link and tell you exactly where in the show to look when the video is online.
Tim Maddog
I watched last night and I'm not impressed with the conversation or the explanation.
Martial Law is not a phrase to be thrown around so lightly, and to even mention that someone has suggested he could invoke it is really irresponsible, especially without a very detailed set of circumstances and reasons that could trigger it.
I would have preferred he didn't mention it at all.
I urge you to take a second (third?) look at last night's "Talking Show" (大話新聞). Here's the link to the video. The relevant segment begins about 30 seconds into part 5, and the video of Chen's speech is followed by a discussion of the media's portrayal/distortion of what was actually said. When you see 22:16:19 onscreen, they play what he said earlier.
You're right that the term shouldn't be taken lightly, but can you guess who it was that raised the specter of martial law first? It seems to have been the KMT's Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) saying that Chen would use the riots that the KMT say will occur as "an excuse" to declare martial law! Chen was dumb for falling into their trap on this one, but that doesn't make him the "dictator" they've been trying to paint him as ever since they lost the presidency. This also can't compare with those who actually had Taiwan under martial law for four decades, so the hypocrisy coming out of those guys with their criticism of this is laughable.
I hope all that comes out the way I intended it to. I've got a headache from hell...
Tim Maddog
Again, I realize that Chen did not say he was going to declare martial law, and I saw this article in the Liberty Times showing the history of how this situation develped.
But I don't want to hear the president even saying that he has been asked to consider it.
I'm glad A-bian promised he wouldn't declare martial law in his term, even if the KMT tries to provoke him into doing so, because I think it would be the end of the DPP and would be a giant step backwards. Even if there's riots, I can't imagine something that extreme really being necessary.
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