Taiwanese Celebrate Election in Homeland

When Taiwan’s president won reelection last month, his Southern California supporters celebrated quietly, at small gatherings.

Orders from Taipei instructed that there be no parties, no loud singing, no rowdy rallies -- nothing that might antagonize the losing party. In Taiwan, disputes over election results had led to fistfights and riots. Party leaders did not want similar brawls in the United States.

So, it wasn’t until Saturday, nearly a month after President Chen Shui-bian’s victory, that supporters finally broke with decorum, holding a belated, but boisterous, celebration in El Monte at the Chinese Culture Center that attracted about 750 people, according to organizers.

California has America’s largest and oldest Taiwanese community, with more than half of the country’s 145,000 Taiwanese, according to census data. This year, according to both parties, Taiwanese Americans have shown an unprecedented level of involvement in their homeland’s politics. It was the first year that Taiwanese living overseas for more than two years could vote in their homeland.

The island has a history of political violence and contentious elections. Until this year, however, there had never been an assassination attempt. On March 19, hours before the election, a bullet grazed Chen’s stomach while he waved to supporters from a motorcade in Tainan. Since the election, Chen’s opponents have rioted, have suggested the shooting was staged and have sued for a recount.

But at Saturday’s celebrations Chen supporters were not preoccupied with the controversy or delay. Instead, they sang, waved flags and gave rousing speeches.

Everything had a splash of green -- the Democratic Progressive Party’s color. Green vests, green ties, green sweaters and green tablecloths filled the hall.

“People want to celebrate,” said Simon Lin, campaign manager for the West Coast, who expressed his elation with a bright green towel draped around his dark business suit.

“We couldn’t stay silent forever,” said Lin, 54, of Arcadia.

But while members of the Democratic Progressive Party known as pan green munched on celebratory egg rolls in El Monte, opposition party members held a 48-hour hunger strike in front of Los Angeles City Hall.

Pan blue members, an alliance of the Nationalist Party and the People First Party, dotted the lawn with Taiwanese flags.

“We are just looking for answers,” said Gene Chao of El Monte, West Coast campaign manager for the Nationalist Party.

“There are so many questions on people’s minds about the election and shooting.” In Taiwan, pan blue members have accused Chen of faking his own assassination attempt to garner sympathy votes. They also doubt the election’s final results. On March 20, Chen won reelection by fewer than 30,000 votes out of 13 million cast.

Sitting on the L.A. City Hall lawn, Yvonne Chien, 54, pointed to an enlarged photo of the assassination attempt. A white circle highlighted the area where Chen had been wounded.

“You can’t see any blood there at all,” said Chien, of Arcadia, who had been fasting since Friday night. “We just want to know the truth.”

Since March 20, pan blue supporters have staged weekly rallies in Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley, drawing thousands of protesters. Last month, they began a letter-writing campaign to Congress and the White House, asking for U.S. help in their cause.

Meanwhile, the pan green party has resisted the urge to hold counter-rallies.

Since the election, Taiwanese Americans have continued to play a role in the controversy.

When pan blue supporters raised suspicions about the assassination attempt, a Taiwanese American forensics expert from Connecticut flew back with a team of scientists to reconstruct the crime scene. They concluded that the president could not have shot himself, but they could not determine whether the attack had been staged.

Most recently, after the losing party called for a recount of the close election, two Taiwanese electronics executives in Orange County donated $4.6 million to finance the effort.

While the pan blue party has clamored for election investigations, the pan green party has told members to stay away from controversy. But even under those orders, pan green members at the victory party on Saturday couldn’t help taking a few jabs at their opponents.

“A win is a win,” said Wencheng Lin, 58, a chemical engineer in Hacienda Heights. “They just can’t face reality and admit defeat.”

Gene Chao, a pan blue party member, responded with a few digs of his own.

“I think maybe the reason they have been quiet is that, in their heart, they know it was only by luck and suspicious situations that they won the election,” he said. “But it’s not over yet.”