`The 7-day coup d'etat' and its real meanings

[dArKeR]

By Chin Heng-wei ???

Monday, May 03, 2004,Page 8

The "seven-day coup d'etat" that lasted from March 20 through March 27 is a major incident in Taiwanese history.

The first reason it is so important is that the party-state system of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) boldly attempted to alter the results of a democratic election with this "coup," failing by a hair's breadth, and thereby signalling the end of the party-state.

The other reason is that the consolidation of Taiwan's democracy is no longer in doubt, and from now on we can work on deepening it.

Future historians are sure to add their bit to this incident, perhaps even in the style of the historian Jonathan Spence.

Spence might have written about the former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, Hsu Hsin-liang (???) announcing at the scene of the coup "I declare Lien Chan (??) and James Soong (???) as the 11th president and vice-

president, according to the wishes of the Taiwanese people." Such an account certainly would spotlight the absurdities of Lien, Soong and the pan-blue camp.

This attempted "coup" is neither a fabrication nor an unfounded accusation, and it is not hard to see why both former president Lee Teng-hui (???) and President Chen Shui-bian (???) brought it up.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/05/03/2003153976

[whirlygigspin]

1. Inauguration day

should be fun...stay tuned.