TAIPEI ¨C For weeks, Taiwan¡¯s two main opposition parties were edging toward a coalition, in a bid to unseat the island democracy¡¯s governing party in the coming presidential election, an outcome that Beijing would welcome. The election, one elder statesman from Taiwan¡¯s opposition said, was a choice between war and peace.
This week, however, the two parties ¡ª which both argue that they are better able to ensure peace with China ¡ª chose in spectacular fashion to go to war against each other. An incipient deal for a joint presidential ticket between the long-established Kuomintang (KMT) and the upstart Taiwan People¡¯s Party unraveled with the speed, melodrama and lingering vitriol of a celebrity wedding gone wrong.
A meeting that was opened to journalists on Thursday seemed to have been meant as a show of goodwill within the opposition. But it featured sniping between rival spokespeople, a long-winded tribute to the spirit of Thanksgiving by Terry Gou ¡ª a magnate turned politician trying to cajole the opposition toward unity ¡ª and mutual accusations of bad faith between the two presidential candidates who had been trying to strike a deal: Hou Yu-ih of the KMT and Ko Wen-je, the founder of the Taiwan People¡¯s Party.
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