Politics is a game, albeit a very serious game because it potentially affects millions of ordinary people. But it is a game, and that is something voters quite often lose sight of.
Whether politicians play the game well is open to question. To my mind here is the latest example of someone playing it very badly and perhaps should be considering another career.
When those playing start to say things that are simply not true, or a bent version of the truth, it really needs immediate push back before it can sow seeds of doubt among those who do not have the time to follow domestic or international affairs closely enough.
The latest, and most blatant, example of this kind of behaviour is the opposition calling the former Health Minister in his bid to become Taipei Major a “Murderer” over the way the handled the Covid crisis.
Just how absurd do you have to be, or how stupid a politican, to say something so idiotic and so blatently untrue?
The attacks reached a new high recently when Huang Shanshan angrily criticised former Health Minister, now Mayoral Taipei mayoral candidate Chen, as failing in his efforts to protect Taiwan citizens from Covid and accusing him of corruption in deploying the vaccine. Also, she became more unhinged by saying "If anyone does this, he will be punished by God, watching people die and seeing people hurt but feeling indifferent."
This is clearly an absurd rant and a rather pathetic attempt to play political games. It smacks of desperation and is the politics of the madhouse.
It also comes from someone who refused to pick up phone calls from the Minister at the height of Covid when she was the pandemic coordinator for Taipei City . This is supposedly a responsible politician who is seeking higher office?
Before we get into the numbers which easily disprove such utter nonsense, let’s reflect for a moment the mindset of those with all the facts and numbers at their disposal who make such a statement. Let’s remember that accusing someone of being a ‘murderer’ is the most extreme form of defamation as the crime is pubilshable by death in Taiwan.
At the time of writing, Taiwan has lost 10,950 lives to Covid, the United Kingdom has lost 207,000. Adjusting for population, roughly the UK has three times the population of Taiwan, you have a comparison of 69,000 vs Taiwan’s 11,000. That is just 16 percent of the UK number.
Looking wider, deaths per million of population are currently around 826 for the world as a whole, with Peru topping the list at 6,421 deaths per million. Taiwan is at 127 from the top on the list of 219. The United States is 20th worst, UK 23rd, European Union 34th and Germany 61st. China appears on this list in 213th place with three reported deaths per million of its 1.4 billion people, which is, by pure coincidence, near North Korea at 215th place which has reported a similarly low figure of zero per million!
Setting aside the obvious anomalies inherent in such lists which do not take into account methodology of data gathering, or indeed honesty, it is clear Taiwan, and by implication Chen himself, has done a fine job in steering the country through the pandemic.
I rode out the bulk of the pandemic in Taiwan with no restrictions on my movement, no lockdowns and really no inconvenience other than having to wear a facemask. Compare this to my friends in the UK who had to endure weeks of virtual imprisonment in their own homes, being questioned by police if they were seen on the street and being fined if they did not have an adequate excuse for being outside.
I had many conversations from those who wished they were in a country which was handling the pandemic sensibly and in a better way. Not to mention the huge economic damage the likes of the UK did to their economy by preventing people from going to work and the sheer waste of billions of pounds on their inept, and failed, Track and Trace scheme.
In all these respects Taiwan stood head-and-shoulders above a G7 country and the world’s fifth largest economy with its huge resources in its handling of the pandemic. I would say it is impossible to say Taiwan, and the Health Minister, did not do a spectacularly good job.
Just how politically desperate do you have to be to level such an appalling accusation at someone? Answer, as desperate as an opposition bereft of ideas and trying so hard to find fault as to resort to the rhetoric of the libellous and of the gutter, to try and score political points.
It is sad and depressing to see those vying for high political office are so wretched and have such low morals they cannot bring themselves to be honest and admit the former Health Minister did a good job during Covid and their ridiculous accusations are both weak and pathetic.
The simple facts are there for all to see and anyone can quickly Google them.
It also puts fully on display the ineptness of their political acumen. Why not pick on his other faults rather than resort to lies? Why not criticise his policies rather than call him ridiculous names, why not come up with some alternative policies than his rather than froth at the mouth and yell “Murderer.” Particularly when it isn’t true. You know it, and worse for you, the public knows it.
To those involved in this latest piece of nonsense, some advice. It doesn’t work, it never has, and it will not in the future and you are insulting the public. Lose the election by all means, but please just be a bit smarter about trying to win it and not bore us all with these inane and unwarranted attacks.
Tinkerty Tonk...
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