ADRIAN WALKER
Exporting democracy
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist, 5/20/2004
Yesterday, Chen Shui-bian was inaugurated
for his second term as president of Taiwan. A few hours before that ceremony,
about 300 Chinese-Americans, most of them Taiwanese, took their frustrations to
the State House here, asking that their new country do something about the mess
that democracy has become in their old country.
"Here in this country we're all
citizens, and we want our voice to be heard," said Chiang, a member of
Boston 3/20, a group dedicated to protesting Chen's election. "This is
such a free country, such a role-model country. I feel everyone here feels
justice is important and democracy is important and we should pressure [Taiwan]
to investigate."
Her consternation is understandable. On
March 20, just 48 hours before Election Day in Taiwan, the incumbent president,
trailing in the polls, was allegedly the victim of an assassination attempt.
The shooting, and the declaration of national emergency that followed,
practically stopped the election in its tracks.
Protesters around the world have questioned
whether Chen was really wounded, and they doubt the integrity of the election
that followed, which he won by 29,000 votes out of 12 million. Now that Chen
has been inaugurated, successfully challenging the election results appears
much less likely.
Taiwan may be half a world away, but its
events -- bad ones especially -- resonate with thousands of people here. They
live in New England, but maintain close family ties, or, in many cases,
business ties to the island. And the fledgling democracy in Taiwan is something
worth fighting for.
But you have to make your stand where you
can. So for the demonstrators here, who joined others yesterday in most major
cities with a sizable Chinese community, the protests were taking place far
from the action, though that dampened their enthusiasm very little.
Albert Chang, 59, a software consultant in
Lexington who has lived in the United States for 30 years, tried to explain why
Taiwan remains so close to his heart.
"There's a lot of back and
forth," he said, referring to the travel and enduring family ties that
most Taiwanese maintain. "Usually when they're here they think they're
Americans. But when something goes on that will badly hurt the future of
Taiwan, everyone gets concerned."
He, too, worries that momentum for
investigating the election will be lost.
"We have a saying that, `Once you make
the rice it becomes the meal,' " he said. "You cannot reverse this
fact."
The list of questions about the shooting is
long. According to press reports, there is scant evidence that Chen suffered
serious injury -- or any injury. No one outside the government appears to have
witnessed the event. In addition, opposition leaders, in Taiwan and abroad,
maintain that hundreds of thousands of questionable ballots may have been cast.
The protesters want a recount, which is
underway but is not expected to be completed until late summer.
They also want a Supreme Court or other
independent authority to evaluate the voting and produce a credible result.
Taiwan has a judiciary, of course, but some maintain that independence has
never been its hallmark. The protesters want, simply, many things that most
Americans take for granted.
Chiang said Taiwanese authorities have
rejected the request for an independent review at least 30 times in the two
months since the election. Now many immigrants here want the United States to
apply pressure for an inquiry.
There's no telling whether a protest in
Boston has any chance of influencing events in a place as distant as Taiwan.
But democracy lives in protesters at the Massachusetts State House demanding
truth, justice, and a fair vote.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist.
He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on
5/20/2004.
© Copyright
2003 Globe Newspaper Company.