Posted on 05/09/2004 3:38:28 PM PDT by Khurkris
2004-03-30 / Bloomberg / By William Pesek Jr.
"I never staged this shooting incident and there's nothing to hide."
It's not a defense Chen Shui-bian hoped to be offering a week after his re-election as Taiwan's president. Yet there he was Saturday, struggling to convince this island's 23 million he didn't fake an assassination attempt to win sympathy votes.
To no avail. Taipei is rife with rumors about "Bulletgate." And the controversy speaks volumes about Chen's lack of credibility with voters.
"It really is like one of the Oliver Stone movies," said William Chiu, 48, one of 500,000 protesters who took to the streets Saturday, calling for the truth about the March 20 election and the March 19 shooting incident.
Events here really do have all the makings of one of Stone's conspiracy-laced films. The director of "JFK," "Nixon" and "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" might be wise to start working on a flick titled "Taiwan's Bulletgate."
Here's the script so far:
The president and vice president are shot while riding together in an open-top jeep. Yes, together. A bullet miraculously grazes Chen's stomach as the jeep zooms along. His No. 2 lucks out, too - with a flesh wound to the knee.
No witnesses see a shooter. Chen isn't whisked to the closest hospital but one at which a supporter is chairman.
A state of emergency is called, keeping many soldiers and police officers from voting. Some 330,000 ballots are invalidated. The incumbent wins by a mere 30,000 votes out of 13 million cast.
It's no wonder JFK-like conspiracy theories are raging here. Did Chen stage the shooting? Was China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province and dislikes Chen, involved? Were supporters of challenger Lien Chan behind it? Or did gamblers have a hand in it? After all, media here in Taipei reported that tens of millions of U.S. dollars were bet on the election.
Farfetched, perhaps, but myriad hypotheses are coursing through Taiwan, dominating news coverage and teahouse conversations. All this would be more entertaining if the stability of one of Asia's most geopolitically important places weren't at risk.
"Come on, you can't tell me the shooting wasn't staged!" yells taxi driver Chou Ken-Te, 54, pounding on the steering wheel as he navigates the streets of Taipei.
'Magic bullet'
Chou, like virtually every Taiwanese you ask, can't get enough of debating the "magic bullet" that hit Chen, much like the one said to hit U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963. There's even a JFK-like single shooter theory versus a multiple shooter one.
Television news programs are airing round-the-clock computer simulations of the Chen shooting to determine where the shooter was hiding. There's even a role in all this for former O.J. Simpson murder trial investigator Henry Lee, who's been tapped to help out here.
Such speculation gets at a bigger and more disturbing point: a lack of trust in Chen. It almost doesn't matter who was behind the assassination attempt. What does it say about the president when so many Taiwanese believe it was staged as a publicity stunt? There's no hard evidence of that and authorities are investigating the incident.
While Chen's razor-thin victory was certified Friday, the 53-year-old may never shake legitimacy questions. He won't have much of a mandate to revive the economy or alter the island's relationship with China. Protests Saturday showed that even some his supporters are less than enthused by his leadership.
"At this point, it doesn't matter who won the election," said protester Chiu, who voted for Chen. "What matters is that we can believe the results, and I no longer believe Chen."
A wild card in all this is China. Officials in Beijing have a poor track record of influencing politics beyond its borders. By saying Friday it may interfere in the crisis if it escalated, China seemed to unify Taiwan's political parties.
How ironic. China barred Taiwan from observer status in the World Organization during last year's SARS crisis. At that time, it put politics ahead of the health of Taiwan's population. And now China is concerned for the well-being of its Taiwanese brothers and sisters?
The gesture backfired. Many of Saturday's protesters were annoyed by China's comments and spoke of the need for a more transparent democratic system in Taiwan. That hardly bodes well for China's argument that Taiwan's return to the mainland is inevitable.
China's handiwork seemed to prod Chen to bow to demands for a recount of the election and establish an independent task force to probe the assassination attempt. It also seemed to encourage the opposition Nationalist Party to call off a seven-day protest.
Yet in order to stay the course toward independence, Chen must prove he's a leader, not just a politician determined to hang on to power at any cost. Judging from the raw feelings among voters here in Taipei, Chen has much convincing to do.
William Pesek Jr. is a columnist for Bloomberg News.
Bold was done by me-khurkris.
There are also a slew of conspiracists who think that the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was a pre-meditated act by the internal Israeli security services.
Honestly, when I first heard the story, I figured that the PRC had been up to some monkey-business of its own.
What does it say about the opposition parties that they made up this whole conspiracy theory and have been spreading it around since the shooting happened? If anyone has a credibility problem, it's Chan and Soong -- they're a national disgrace! Much worse than Al Gore ever was.
Khurkis was one of the first to start spreading this ludicrous nonsense.
I guess he's still trying.
"What does it say about the opposition parties that they made up this whole conspiracy theory and have been spreading it around since the shooting happened?"
Answering a question with a question could lead one to believe that you have no answers and only wish to avoid the question.
I just posted the article. Lets see some valid responses to the questions asked in the article.
I answered a stupid question with a ridiculous premise with a real, honest-to-goodness question of why the KMT and PFP leaders tried to sabotage Taiwanese democracy in order to overturn the election and seize power.
The staged-shooting theory is BS (how the hell are you supposed to arrange to be grazed in the abdomen when traveling in a moving car?!?!) and we both know it, so cut the crap.
Yes...please do notice the article. I just happened upon it this afternoon. The date of the article is plainly posted. It is an interesting piece in a continuing dilema in Taiwan.
"Khurkis was one of the first to start spreading this ludicrous nonsense.
LOL...It would seem that anyone who dares to post an article that contradicts your opinions is subject to disapproval.
"I guess he's still trying."
Such a petty rebuke. Perhaps you expect an apology for my being so bold as to post articles that offer insight into a situation that only You are allowed to comment on. Sorry Bubba...take offense and get girly all you want. I don't write the articles. This is a continuing drama in Taiwan. Perhaps you should offer you skills to the investigators on the scene. You should be able to wrap it up in a short bit, eh?
Although I do notice that you make only snide coments to me, and NONE to the info contained in the article.
It's an opinion piece that sounds like it was written by Lien Chan in his next job at the National Enquirer after he's booted from KMT chairmanship.
Perhaps you should offer you skills to the investigators on the scene. You should be able to wrap it up in a short bit, eh?
Investigators have already disproved most of the ridiculous charges pan-blue made after the shooting. In the month since this little opinion piece was written, Chen has been vindicated and pan-blue has been discredited and has gone through rounds of recriminations for their failure.
The former president (Lee Teng-hui) said the current leadership of the KMT was the last residue of the bad old days and that it would survive only a few months http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/05/09/2003154699
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