Protesters enter southern Taiwan

But the success was dented by the sudden death of a police officer assigned to prevent possible clashes between Shih’s followers and Chen supporters.

Shih’s convoy of 20 buses with 600 people and more than 100 sedans crisscrossed cities and towns in the counties of Miaoli, Changhua, and Yunlin during the day to propagate the message why the people should oust Chen for the series of corruption cases involving himself, family, and close aides.

They were met with firecrackers along the way, although the journey was not all smooth.

Many people in southern Taiwan still oppose the “anti-corruption and depose Chen” campaign, although Shih repeatedly stressed that the movement was to root out corruption from Taiwan politics rather than picking on Chen.

The election schemes by politicians over the years have not only divided the people of different communities into early or later immigrants but also pitted people in southern Taiwan against those in the northern areas.

Most local county chiefs of the DPP in southern Taiwan make public statements to prevent Shih’s anti-graft convoy from entering their territories.

They claimed that Shih and his supporters would never be able to cross the Choshui River, a big river that divides the island in the middle and is also used by politicians to mark their political turf.

But Yunlin County chief Su Chih-feng became a rare exception to allow Shih to hold a mass rally right outside the county government building in Touliu City.

Shih said that he was pleased by Su’s wise decision to safeguard people’s basic rights and freedom of expression and assembly.

He used to team up with Su’s father to fight for these rights and freedom decades ago when Taiwan was still under authoritarian rule.

Responding to reporters’ questions, Su said her decision was not based on personal relationships but on the consideration of what actions should be taken by a local administrator for democracy.

By sharp contrast, one DPP county magistrate claimed that the anti-graft protesters would be arrested even when they make stop in his county and step out of the vehicles to use toilets.

Shih told the huge crowd at the evening mass rally that the anti-corruption campaign is even more important to Taiwan’s democracy in the future as compared with his fight against authoritarian regime in the past.

He praised the courage of people in Yunlin for taking the right action as they did not take up “bamboo sticks” to drive out the anti-graft protesters as reported before he embarked on the weeklong cross-island journey.

Shih blasted county chiefs of Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung for prohibiting the anti-corruption gatherings.

He said that he did not hate them for their actions, but stressing that their clamping on freedom and democracy will all be recorded in Taiwan’s progressive democratic history.

Shih, who went to the Yunlin branch of the National Taiwan University Hospital, to pay a visit to police captain Lin Tian-shia who was taken there for emergency treatment after suffered a stroke and heart attack at around 8:30 p.m.

He sent condolences to Liu’s family for the tragedy.

But Shih, who himself is fighting against liver cancer, decided to continue the journey to southern Taiwan in the campaign that he described as the last one in his life.

Shih and supporters will visit various towns and cities in Nantou County and then move on to Chiayi today.

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