The President Chen saga continues
I wrote the two RTI English pieces today on Chen Shui-bian's apparent relinquishing of power. When I first came into work today and checked the foreign wires, this is the AP headline I saw: Taiwan premier takes control of government. It seemed like the president was handing his power over to the premier, and the possible scenario I described two days ago was playing out in predictible fashion. Would the next step be Chen's resignation and Annette Lu's inauguration? We all know the AP isn't always so reliable these days. Well, here are my two stories, first from the Green perspective and then from the blue. The important point is that he said he would give up some of his powers.
Here is the whole list of Google News stories on the subject for anyone wishing to do more research. As you might notice, there isn't a whole lot of variation between headlines.
Well, today we really came down to the wire; I had four actualities to record and Paula had one (male and female voices) with only 20 minutes. Usually, I mess up several times as I'm reading before I get it right. Today, there was just no time.
I have some pictures to post here, but I'm getting tired. So, please wait until tomorrow.
posted by Eli @ 11:08 PM
4 Comments:
I tuned into the RTI the other night, and heard Paula. I'm still hoping to catch you one of these nights. :)
Great! Right now, I'm only a dubbed voice for actualities. So, when you hear the president speaking, it's usually me.
Annette Lu used to be tremendously disliked in Taiwan -- she's abrasive, opinionated and comically gaffe-prone (though in Taiwan you gotta wonder how much the media has to do with that). However, in the wake of the first family's penchant for diamond encrusted watches and insider trading, Lu looks attractive because her integrity is generally considered to be beyond doubt. It's probably the best case scenario for the DPP if president Chen falls on his sword now and let Lu take over -- she'll have the best part of a term to prove herself, or not. However, I don't think Chen is ready. He's hoping to placate the populace by throwing his closest advisors overboard (exactly what they had to do with his thieving son-in-law is unclear) and "delegating power". It looks more to me like he's looking for any way he can to cling on to his presidency.
Thanks for the insightful comments on Chen and Lu. Really helpful! I've been trying to make sense of all of this, especially with the television going on and on about Chao Chien-ming. Still, I find Taiwan politics fascinating, but I also find American politics fascinating.
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