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Editorials
Saturday, April 15, 2000Peru’s Fujimori
falls short of
re-electionOFFICIAL results showing that Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori had fallen just short of a majority of the votes for re-election mean that a runoff election must be held. The inconclusive outcome averts for the time being a crisis in Peru's relations with the international community stemming from charges of widespread government cheating and intimidation.The issue: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has narrowly failed to win a majority of the vote in his bid for re-election, forcing a runoff.
Criticism had been so strong that if Fujimori had won his administration probably would have become a pariah. There was speculation that the regime decided to pull back from claiming Fujimori elected in order to avert violent protests.
U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said before the results were announced that the United States would have "serious, serious questions" if there was not a second round of voting. European governments also were skeptical of the election process.
Allegations of irregularities and fraud that marred the first-round vote included charges that Fujimori's campaign forged more than 1 million signatures in order to register his candidacy. Undoubtedly the conduct of the runoff will be closely watched by international observers.
Fujimori, seeking a third five-year term, had rammed through Congress a law permitting an additional presidential term -- another instance of the high-handedness that has marked his presidency.
Born of Japanese immigrant parents, Fujimori had been an academic and was virtually unknown six weeks before his first election in 1990. Now he faces an opponent, Alejandro Toledo, a former World Bank official and business school professor, who is a political novice just as Fujimori had been.
For three days before the final count was announced, Toledo's supporters had demonstrated by the tens of thousands. Toledo had warned that the mostly peaceful marches and rallies could turn violent if Fujimori claimed victory.
When Fujimori was first elected, the economy was in shambles and a rebel movement posed a major challenge to the government. Two years later he shut down the Congress, arrested several opposition leaders, imposed censorship and announced that he would rule as a dictator until a new constitution was approved.
In a major triumph, his forces succeeded in capturing the founder of a Maoist group called the Shining Path that had been fighting to overthrow the government for 12 years. The rebellion subsided after that.
However, Fujimori's popular support has faded. During the campaign, opposition candidates accused his military intelligence service of using thugs to disrupt rallies, sponsoring lurid newspaper attacks and blocking access to state-controlled television and radio.
The Fujimori campaign accused Toledo of shunning an illegitimate daughter and being an architect of a financial pyramid scheme that impoverished thousands of Peruvians. He has denied the charges.
Fujimori is in deep trouble. He has discredited himself by the way he conducted the campaign and the election. More of the same in the runoff could lead to violence, even revolution.
Beijing’s blustering
CHINA'S saber-rattling over Taiwan independence probably is nothing more than overheated rhetoric. But reckless talk can have unintended consequences, so it was probably useful for U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher to appeal for calm. Prueher, formerly based here as commander-in-chief, Pacific, said this is "a time to proceed very cautiously and with creative ideas in mind to resolve these issues...a time for rhetoric to be very measured."
Beijing is particularly upset with comments by Taiwan's vice president-elect, Annette Lu, who said Taiwan should be only a "remote relative and close neighbor" of China. This was interpreted as an indication that Lu favors independence for Taiwan -- she has advocated independence in the past but supposedly has muted her support since the election last month-- and Beijing responded with a stream of invective.
Meanwhile a Chinese army newspaper reported that the military had increased training in operations aimed at crossing the Taiwan Strait and invading Taiwan. The newspaper said the army will not allow division of China. This may be only an outburst of frustration. There are no confirmed reports that China is preparing an attack on Taiwan.
Perhaps a warning by a senior Chinese official to the news media in Hong Kong against spreading or advocating separation of Taiwan should be taken more seriously. The statement, which was prompted by a Hong Kong television station's broadcast of an interview with Annette Lu, appeared to infringe on the freedom of the press supposedly guaranteed to Hong Kong under terms of the 1997 transfer from Britain.
It was made by Wang Fengchao, deputy director of the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, who is in a position to speak authoritatively. His remarks alarmed journalists and pro-democracy politicians.
Evidently China does not take its noninterference pledge seriously and will demand the same conformity from the Hong Kong media as from the mainland media on issues that really matter. That will not help persuade Taiwan to abandon its de facto independence.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
