Quotes of the Week - Race Baiting & Nonchalance

(A Papaya tree in Puli - Thanks MT)

Two excellent quotes this week just in.  The first came from the lips of KMT Xinbei Mayor Candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫)  who, in the wake of the Yang Taekwondo Scandal, decided milk it for more than it is worth and throw in some needless racism:

Chu said in a statement that Taiwan needed to better equip its athletes to give them more determination in “beating the Korean team” in international sporting events.

Let's see. We need to better equip Taiwanese athletes so that it will give them more determination to beat the Korean Team.  This needs a factcheck moment.  Yang was fighting against a Vietnamese opponent but the main referee was Korean Filipino of Korean descent hence all the utterly misplaced angst towards Korea (a country which has long been for Taiwanese a proxy enemy to beat up on and direct their artificially whipped up 'patriotic' xenophobia when they feel helpless in the face of Chinese threats and mendacity).  This misdirected ire shows both the desperation of Chu (who may have wind that Tsai is now running him to the line) and the KMT's belief that some Korea-bashing will go down well with nationalistic pan-blue voters.  In short: Chu Fail.

The second quote is priceless and concerns the Japanese Minister of Justice who let the cat completely out of the bag:

Japan's justice minister says he is resigning after causing outrage for joking about how easy his job was.

Minoru Yanagida said the only two phrases he had to remember in parliament were: "I won't comment on individual cases," and "I'm acting in accordance with the law and the evidence."

Is there a Minister of Justice Playbook that advises Ministers around the world on how to manage their job in the least controversial way?  I ask because Taiwan's last two Ministers of Justice have made, almost verbatim, the same comments when talking with the media.  Executing 4 prisoners and shamefully reviving the almost defunct death penalty in Taiwan? - "I'm acting in accordance with the law".  Putting political pressure on the judiciary by calling its verdicts into question and suggesting that verdicts must conform to public opinion? - "I won't comment on individual cases".

At least, we now have it confirmed that those phrases are just hot air designed to blow away attention and deflect more difficult examination of the issue at hand.  Thanks Minoru.