Tension and confusion on eve of elections
Taipei (AsiaNews) The office of the president in Taipei has confirmed that President Chen Shuibian and Vice President Annette Lu were injured by gunshots fired during a rally in Tainan.
Chiou I-jen, secretary to the president, said that neither were in serious condition and are fully conscious. "The vice-president first felt pain in her knee and she thought it was caused by a firecracker explosion. Then the president felt some wetness on his stomach area, and then they realized something was wrong," he said.
Both were driven to Tainan's Chi Mei hospital.
At the beginning the media reported the president was wounded by a firecracker. But afterward Chiou I-jen said it was "surely caused by gun-fire" and that a bullet had been removed from the president's stomach.
Until now no official statement has been released on who was behind the assassination attempt.
AsiaNews sources in Taipei and Taichung reported people's reactions and opinions. Some say it was the act of a mad man and not of someone from the opposition party, since any such attempt would backfire in favor Chen Shuibian. Many others said they were confused about how it all occurred, since no one not even police escorts were aware the president was wounded. They also spoke about a "scene" orchestrated just to win votes.
Others said that due to all the noise made by firecrackers going off in the area it was not possible to hear the gunfire. Some people who went there to learn what happened said the president was only slightly wounded in the face by shattered glass from one of his car's windows.
Fr. Paolo Consonni, 40, a Columbian missionary who has worked for years in Taiwan, said that after the event "people are neither afraid nor angry, but rather in shock and discouraged." He said furthermore that people "feel that what just happened has ruined a peaceful election campaign, which was never characterized by violence even if well-fought."
There has been great tension felt in the country right up until election time. A missionary nun living on the island for over 25 years said that Catholics prefer not to talk about the elections to avoid polemics and clashes with other members in their communities. "We'd rather avoid expressing our opinions in public in order to avoid hurting each other," she said. Between the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) currently in power and the KMT (Kuomintang) nationalist opposition party, Catholics favor much more the latter. "They have more experience, clearer political ideas," she said.
"It would be a good thing to keep the new party in power (the PDD) but in the last 4 years they have done nothing significant," the missionary said. Concerning the referendum on relations with the mainland, she said that "it is difficult to say what will happen tomorrow. The outcome is still uncertain, and it will be so to the very end. People's reactions to the current situation with China will have a great impact on which way their vote swings. This is an issue which raises concerns and fears in all Taiwanese. No one, not even the KMT, want to blindly end up under Chinese rule."
"What worries people as well is the idea of unification with China under a special status, as happened with Hong Kong, since they have seen that democracy is in real danger here."
On the other hand, neither are Taiwanese convinced about independence. "For a nation that is so small and given its current economic situation, even a conditioned reunification with China is viewed by some as a good solution. This is even more so when considering that mainlanders and Taiwanese share the same Chinese identity," she said.
Concerning voter turn out for the first-ever referendum, for which voters will cast their ballots together with those to elect a new president, the missionary said. "I don't think people will boycott the referendum. Not to show support for Chen Shuibian, but to express their own opinions and identity as voting members of society."
Fr. Paolo Consonni said, "In my opinion the referendum is a step that anticipates seeking (total) independence. People are quite afraid that China, which has isolated Taiwan during (Chen's) presidency, will isolate it even more if he ends up being reelected."
"The economy has suffered from this isolation and this worries Taiwanese who work and invest in China," he said. "What matters the most in the end for most Taiwanese is not politics but the economy".
Fr. Consonni said that the Catholic Church has maintained its impartiality during the election campaigns. But he said that some religious and clergy have held gatherings to help faithful understand how to vote according to Gospel teachings.
Despite today's incident, elections will take place as originally planned. Yet both parties cancelled their last rallies and demonstrations. (MR)
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14/02/2008
