what some people do for democracy

my parents just flew back from taiwan on sunday, where they had spent the past week+ over there for the election and the campaigning.

he was tired, but he said that it was pretty crazy: besides the normal election rallies and tour stops, there was the assassination attempt on the president, which caused a sudden end to campaigning on both sides on the eve of election day, and then the sudden claims by the opposition that the assasination was staged, despite the photos, which led do the release of pictures of the president on the operating table (talking on his cell!). in the end, the president was re-elected, but by an incredibly slim margin, leading to calls for a recount as well as election fraud by the opposition, despite an admitted lack of evidence. and of course, still claims that the assasination was staged for sympathy votes, which has also been refuted by taiwan’s criminal investigation bureau. note, this is the same party that earlier tried to compare the president to hitler.

so, the election’s still up in the air, but it looks like it’ll most likely go through, and some people will be disguntled about it for a long time. sound familar? it’s odd for me to be on the other side, and compare how easy it is to rationalize whatever way you want the outcome to end up.

still, it’s impressive that people are still so passionate about their government. something like 80% of the population turned out to vote. hell, even my dad left the country without having been issued passport (and subsequently almost wasn’t allowed back in) because he wanted to get to taiwan to take part in the process. this all sort of puts us to shame, doesn’t it? maybe if they tied elections to the last episode of survivor or the bachelor or the apprentice, that you had to vote to see who won, would we actually get some sort of interest or passion in our electoral process. because it’s only the future, right? whatever.

Posted at March 23, 2004 8:23 AM