Caution - Children crossing

It’s embarrassing enough when small children throw tantrums, when adults do it it’s acutely uncomfortable, when political parties do it it’s time to go and hide behind the sofa so you don’t have to witness people demean themselves to the level of toddlers whose favourite toy has fallen out of their pram. 

Top contender in today’s ‘let’s go and hide behind the sofa’ stakes is, yes, you guessed it, that soft-brained, high-waistband, multiple university entrance exam taker and self acclaimed genius…the Taipei Mayor. 

I’m sorry, but his signoff message today is just ridiculous. I can think of only two excuses for writing something so mindbogglingly stupid. 1) He was dog-tired and worn out from staying up late wringing his hands and stressing out because he was part of a plan that utterly and miserably failed, and that he was involved. 2) It was written by one of his simple-minded minions because he ordered it up before falling asleep in his chair. 

First he says referendums are a “manifestation of direct democracy.” But magically this one was different because the government acted like any government and defended its position.

How naive do you have to be to think if you attack someone they will not do everything they can to defend themselves. He talks about the government “seizing power.” I guess it has escaped his marshmallow-like intellect that, er, the government has already seized power. 

He points out the DPP spent 58 million of their own party funds to defend their position. So what? They felt deeply enough about the national interest to defend their position and they won. How is this unfair? In the fullness of time we will learn what the KMT spent, it will be interesting to compare the figures. Laughably he says the government has lost credibility. That, truly, is the rantings of someone deeply out of touch with reality. 

Much of his raving is his usual nonsense, but I do agree with him on some issues. 

He opines “most voters are disgusted with this referendum.” He is dead right there. Most voters are disgusted that the opposition parties forced these ridiculously small issues to a referendum and initiated the huge waste of time and effort in the first place. Remember who set all this in motion Mr Mayor, not the government, but the opposition.

He also pointed out the referendums did not cross the threshold and said that reflected the wisdom of the people. Quite right, they knew this was all a waste of time and money and didn’t bother to vote because they saw it as the opposition simply playing political games in a pathetic attempt to get one over on the government. 

He also says it is the “responsibility of the central government” to deal with these issues. Er, Mr Mayor, they were. It was the ridiculous games of the equally ridiculous opposition parties which created all this nonsense. As you know I’m against referendums because they detract from democracy, not aid it. Saturday’s nonsense is a good example of why they don’t work. 

He also says quite rightly that “Taiwan must join CPTPP and various international organizations as soon as possible, and renewable energy must make up for the electricity gap!”

Good heavens, so many things I agree with the Taipei Mayor on…I think I need to go and have a lie down. 

Tinkerty Tonk…