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Psychics plague Taiwan’s polls
Taiwan's presidential candidates kicked off campaigns officially on Jan 27 for elections scheduled for March 22 |
The fortune tellers - from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and the US - claim to have psychic powers, but many Taiwanese think they are fakes.
Taiwan will hold its presidential polls on March 22 to elect a new leader to succeed President Chen Shui-bian, who will step down on May 20 after having served two four-year terms.
Frank Hsieh, from the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, is running against Ma Ying-jeou, from Taiwan's largest opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
After a bumpy start, Ma, charismatic but not as politically savvy as Hsieh, is now leading Hsieh by 20-30 percent in popularity rating as many Taiwanese, disillusioned with Taiwan's worsening economy and strained Taiwan-China ties, want to see KMT return to power.
But the geomancers make their own predictions, which are mostly ambiguous.
Li Jianjun, a Chinese fortune teller who is on good terms with Taiwan politicians, predicted that Ma has the upper hand but must watch out for his safety and health.
"Ma's left shoulder is lower than his right shoulder. And when he talks to the public, he is not looking them in the eye. These are bad signs for his health," Li said in Taipei on Dec 13.
Li foresaw two potential disasters for Ma, one in December and the other in January, but his predictions failed to materialise.
Hsieh has a bigger "posture" problem than Ma, Li warned, because when Hsieh addressed public rallies, he sticks his heck out, like a duck waiting to have its head chopped off.
In January, Elizabeth Fotinopoulos, a self-proclaimed US psychic, visited Taiwan to promote the Chinese translation of her book, but made headlines with her comments on Taiwan's presidential polls.
"There will be an attempt on Ma's life, probably with bullets," she told reporters.
Echoing her prediction, Shih Chi-ching, a Taiwan psychic, said she and four other seers saw bad people planning to harm Ma and at least 15 others close to him.
Hong Kong fortune teller Li Kui-ming also showed up in Taipei in January to promote his book on predictions for 2008.
Regarding Taiwan's presidential election, Li said Ma is not fit to be president but has a bigger chance of winning.
"His surname is Ma (horse), it will be a strenuous job for him because he is a horse. If I were him, I would not run for president," he said.
Hsieh, on the other hand, will also face obstacles in the election, but he can remove them by wearing a yellow tie and yellow clothes, he said.
Both of the candidates themselves refused to comment on the fortune tellers' predictions.
Master Hsing Yun, one of Taiwan's Buddhist leaders, urged Taiwanese to discard superstition.
"Although there is fate, human beings can change their fate by doing good deeds. So people should free themselves from superstition and create a logical and democratic society," he wrote in the Buddhist daily Merit Time.
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