Premier Su, People Don’t Want to Stand Behind Your Broom

  Premier Su, People Don’t Want to Stand Behind Your Broom

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 26, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

When asked how long Taiwan could sustain in case of war, Premier Su Tseng-chang replied, "Even with only a broom, I would fight the enemy to the end." He said, let the enemy know that attacking Taiwan would pay a price, because Taiwan’s people had grown up in spite of threats. Just as President Tsai Ing-wen endlessly stirred up cross-Strait relations, Premier Su issued his lofty talk on “defending against the enemy with a broom"; perhaps he thought that he was valiant beyond description, but to the ears of the public, it probably was no better than the snake-oil peddler’s sales pitch!

This was not the first time that Su Tseng-chang issued such confrontational and bellicose rhetoric vis-à-vis cross-Strait relations. Several days ago, in an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan, Su did refer to the words of then British Prime Minister Churchill against the Nazis, "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender," and called upon everyone to have such an attitude. Such remarks of battles and fighting have turned the atmospherics of society into an extremely tense status; several days later, he again added the statement on "defending against the enemy with a broom," which was even more ridiculous. What worries people is not that the Tsai government has no determination to fight to the end; what the public fears is what has been left of the DPP is only the bravado of "hitting rocks with eggs."

Examining the hollow concepts contained in Su Tseng-chang’s brave words, we have been truly astonished. In his "broom talk," he said that he would let the enemy know that attacking Taiwan would have to "pay a price"; however, did he, or did he not, think of how enormous the price that the people of Taiwan would have to pay: such as the casualties of the armed forces and civilians, the destruction of construction, and disarray of daily life, the backpedalling of several decades of civilization development, etc. Shouldn’t they be placed in the assessments of the government's policies? Taiwan’s people are not afraid of war; once the enemy launches an attack, the people of course will rise up and fight, and will not sit idly by to die. The problem is that the people do not want to follow behind loser leadership, nor do they believe that politicians who, with political self-interest in their bellies, would, when the time comes, truly valiantly stand on front lines to lead the battle. The reason is very simple. Just look at the DPP, for a long time, on the one hand, it has trampled on the morale and dignity of the military and harmed the draft system, while on the other hand, endlessly incited cross-Strait hatred; we can see that the Green camp only wants to fish in the muddled water by stirring up the situation.

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