Grassroot support for Taiwan's Chen weathers scandals

TAINAN COUNTY, Taiwan, July 16 (Reuters) Standing with his family in front of President Chen Shui-bian's childhood home, Wang Fang-cao is unwavering in his support for the scandal-plagued Taiwan leader.

Wang, 40, says it's simply a choice about identity.

Chen and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) believe in building a Taiwanese identity separate from China, something Wang also holds dear.

Since Chen's election in 2000, the traditional three-sided Chinese-style house has become a tourist attraction in the southern county of Tainan, the heartland for grassroots supporters of the president and the party.

But the DPP fears its supporters could turn their backs after a string of scandals involving Chen's family and close aides.

''It won't affect me supporting them, simply because I believe Taiwan is an independent country,'' said Wang, who works as a legal researcher in Tainan.

''The opposition parties want to sell Taiwan out to become part of China and I can't accept that,'' he said, watching his two daughters take turns to snap photos of each other in front of the red-brick farm house.

The main opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, favours closer ties with China and has used the scandals to hammer Chen and the DPP as well as launching an unsuccessful parliamentary ''recall'' vote last month in an attempt to force him to quit.

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since 1949, when the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) government retreated to the island, leaving the mainland to Mao Zedong's Communists. Beijing insists on eventual reunification, by force if necessary.

Despite the fierce loyalty of grassroots supporters like Wang, party officials admit the scandals that have sent Chen's popularity ratings to record lows have also affected DPP support.

The party, which long campaigned for clean government, is facing a serious challenge in mayoral elections in the capital, Taipei, and in the southern city of Kaohsiung in December and a presidential poll in 2008.

Now serving his second term, Chen is ineligible to run for president again.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT Chen's administration and the DPP were plunged into crisis in May, when prosecutors began probing allegations by an opposition lawmaker of insider-trading by his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming.

Chao was indicted on Monday and prosecutors sought an eight-year jail term.

That followed the indictment of Chen's former deputy chief-of-staff, Chen Che-nan, no relation to the president, on corruption charges.

Prosecutors also questioned First Lady Wu Shu-chen after the lawmaker accused her of accepting department store vouchers worth millions of Taiwan dollars.

A poll on Thursday by Global View Magazine showed that 72.4 percent of respondents said Chen should step down if it was shown that Wu had received the vouchers, while almost 60 percent thought the DPP was not committed to clean government or reform.

DPP officials say the damage has been done and that much work is needed to win back voters' confidence.

''Although the recall vote failed, both President Chen and the DPP should humbly reflect upon on themselves and face up to it,'' Su Huan-chih, the DPP's Tainan County magistrate said.

OPPOSITION BOOST? However, party officials debate the extent to which the party will be affected in 2008, pointing to modest gains in grassroots elections in June.

''Although, on the surface, the support for the DPP has been dwindling, we have seen the number of DPP members being elected as village heads and neighbourhood chiefs has been increasing,'' said Kuo Kuo-wen, chairman of the party's Tainan County branch.

Even the Nationalists' representatives in Tainan were cautious about claiming any significant windfalls in Chen's home county from the scandal.

''It's too early to tell if support for the Kuomintang has strengthened,'' said Su Ming-kuo, chairman of the KMT's Tainan chapter. ''But it has raised expectations for the Kuomintang.'' Disappointment in the ranks of hardcore Chen supporters and DPP voters is obvious, but whether or not that will translate into losses at the ballot box has yet to be seen.

''I wish this news wasn't true and it was about somebody else, but at the end of the day I will still support Chen and the DPP,'' said Jenny Su, 61, a retiree from Taipei, as she took one last look back at Chen's house before heading home.

REUTERS SY KP0830