The 2004 presidential election in Taiwan was a precarious time. Just imagine it: President Chen gets shot a day before the election by an unknown assassin. Then we hear he's still alive; the bullet merely grazed him. Lien Chan, his KMT opponent, demands to visit the injured president in hospital, but is rebuffed - probably because the president believes Lien was behind the shooting. Lien then trivializes the crime by telling television reporters that the situation is "not a crisis". The military is mobilized.
The next day, the wounded president wins by a miniscule 30,000 votes.
And things REALLY get hairy after that.
First, the KMT and its allies go ballistic. Didn't their polls tell them their guy was 4-7% ahead? Didn't their newspapers tell them their guy was a shoo-in? Their guy COULDN'T have lost, so they take to the streets. They demand a recount. They demand a do-over. What of the members of the military who didn't get to vote because of the mobilization in the wake of the assassination attempt? Let them vote, and let them vote NOW. Thirty thousand votes - that's all the KMT needs. Just 30,000...
What, the law says we CAN'T do any of those things, at least not immediately? Well then, bend the law - JUST THIS ONCE. President Chen, the KMT DEMANDS that you declare a State of Emergency so that the niceties of the law can be set aside*.
In the southern port city of Gowshung, KMT mobs gather and try to storm a government building, but are held back by police standing behind mobile metal barricades. A KMT legislator with a bullhorn gets on top of a van and orders it to charge the barricades. The van doesn't break through, but one policeman is injured - possibly with a broken arm. Incredibly, the China Post claims that the "crowd" was merely "trying to learn the TRUTH about the assassination".
I wonder how much truth they got out of nearly running over that policeman.
In the northern city of Taipei, thousands of angry KMT supporters march in the cold rain. I don't recall there being cases of egregious violence like in Gowshung, but matters take an ominous turn when men in military uniforms are permitted to address the marchers. Rumors swirl of an impending coup. Taiwan's defense minister resigns. KMT leader Lien Chan grants the crowd his permission to "eliminate" the president. Meanwhile, Communist China announces it will not sit by idly if the island descends into chaos...
After a few very tense days, America extends its congratulations to Chen, thereby recognizing the legitimacy of the election. The ranks of the demonstrators slowly thin, though the street protests continue for a month or so. The KMT explores legal avenues towards declaring the election null and void, but these end up leading nowhere. It concocts elaborate conspiracy theories suggesting that the Machiavellian Chen was behind his own shooting in order to win "sympathy votes", and to deny 200,000 members of the military their franchise**. These theories it attempts to "prove" by conducting an unconstitutional investigation that few of the principals cooperate with. The investigation is eventually terminated by the Supreme Court.
Flash forward to this week. Evidence that the rumors about a coup two years ago were not without foundation:
During a legislative hearing, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
李傑) yesterday said that some military personnel had approached him and asked him to feign sickness and step aside so that they could organize a coup against President Chen Shui-bian ( 陳水扁). (Emphasis added) [...]
Lee Jye, who was Chief of General Staff at the time, yesterday confirmed these reports.
"Some unidentified military personnel came to me and asked me to `play sick' so they could carry out their plans to oust the president. But, when I refused immediately, they just walked away," Lee said.
Fortunately for Taiwan, the mutinous officers were not more ruthless. This time, anyways. Fortunate too, that Lee was an honorable man. But as the German saying goes, "Unlucky is the land that needs heroes."
In March of 2004, Taiwan was a land in need of them:
DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) had said at a press conference that three admirals and eight lieutenant generals had been asked to resign or pretend they were ill after the presidential election. However, no military officials followed [the defense minister's resignation], which Lee Wen-chung attributed to the successful [depoliticization] of the military. (Emphasis added)
News reports had reported that three deputy chiefs of the general staff at the time -- military adviser to the president Admiral Fei Hung-po (費鴻波), MND deputy-minister Admiral Chu Kai-sheng (朱凱生) and Chief of the Air force General Liu Kuei-li (劉貴立) were the key targets that had been asked to resign.
Then Deputy Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-mi (
陳肇敏) was also reported to have been encouraged to resign.
At the moment, the question of whether the coup plotters acted on their own or were asked by KMT political leaders is a salient one. Chen's political opponents have sued him for libel for saying they were involved in the "soft coup"***. The case is being retried for technical reasons, but the evidence for KMT involvement may not be firm:
[Lee Jye said the plotters,] "came to me on behalf of [a] `certain group of people.'"
However, Lee said that neither former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (
連戰) nor People First Party Chairman James Soong ( 宋楚瑜) had approached him or sent anyone to see him on their behalf. But he said he was quite sure that the military personnel who came to him were [KMT] supporters [or their allies].
Who were the plotters? Their identities are unknown to the public, but have been revealed in closed door sessions of the libel trial. It's unfathomable to me why their names and faces aren't plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country. Firing them, allowing them to retire, or "promoting" them to an important post in the 21st Envelope-Stuffing Battalion isn't enough: Each and every one of them should be tried for sedition and punished as an example to army officers in the future. Leniency of course should be granted to those who finger political instigators. Not wanting to air the military's dirty laundry is no excuse for covering this up. I cannot help but agree with one legislator (a KMT lawmaker, no less!) who spoke about the matter to Lee Jye during a hearing:
"Because you refused to name the generals who approached you and asked you to feign sickness and step aside, everyone keeps guessing, and that has hurt the reputations of innocent generals."
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* It was quite a spectacle to witness the KMT asking the same man they vilified as an "evil dictator" to declare martial law. How many of you would ask a political opponent to declare martial law if you truly believed he had tyrannical tendencies?
** The KMT has stated that its party lost a disproportionate number of votes when the military was mobilized, because the military is composed primarily of KMT supporters. While this may be true with respect to the officer class, it is a dubious claim to make regarding the young draftees that make up the bulk of Taiwan's armed forces.
*** The coup was intended to be a "soft" one - the mutinous armed forces did not intend to actually depose Chen, but they DID plan to cease obeying his orders. Without control over the military, Chen's legitimacy would have been undermined, and he would have been forced to resign, sooner or later.
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