Rulers infected with elitism

The president has since been confronted by hecklers on other occasions, including during a visit to a school and a medical facility. Each time the hecklers are spirited away by security officers, the president has publicly chided his critics and reaffirmed his own sense of self-righteousness. According to our outspoken president and vice president, all of their critics are either agents of the opposition-dominated press, dolts or just plain wrong.

We do understand that leaders of all political stripes cannot abandon fundamental policies simply because they have been confronted by hecklers. However, we are quite surprised at the abrasive and harsh way that our leaders have dealt with these incidents. While heckling is rather common in other democratic countries, foreign leaders are almost always gracious enough to quickly brush away their critics and continue their original itineraries.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who has frequently been heckled during public speeches and gatherings due to the controversial U.S.-led war in Iraq, has never publicly lashed out at his critics with such abrasive and angry words. Even when an anti-war student spit in the face of the former U.S. President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, the controversial American leader merely wiped off his face with a handkerchief and continued making his way to where he was going.

In contrast, President Chen and Vice President Lu have abrasively snapped back at their critics by accusing them of being plants, hacks and idiots. The fact that President Chen and Vice President Lu have responded to critics long after being confronted also proves they are truly upset because ordinary people have the nerve to heckle them. While the DPP had formerly prided itself on its close connections to ordinary people, these days it is clear that President Chen and Vice President Lu have been infected with the same kind of elitism that brought down the KMT.

The DPP’s nominee for next year’s presidential election, Frank Hsieh, should be careful not to follow the bad example being set by incumbent leaders, lest the ordinary people decide to fight back by denying him their votes.

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