Ah Hui Boy Kept A Dog

Following yesterday's post about Hong Kong public radio, this one is about Taiwan public television.  

On the public television channel in Taiwan, there is a musical program known as UBU Hard Ground Music Festival (UBU硬地音樂展).  Recently, the legendary musician Luo Dayou (羅大佑) was interviewed on that program and then he performed four songs from his album Formosa (Beautiful Island).

One of the songs is titled Ah Hui Boy Kept A Dog, and the lyrics include the following:

阿輝仔飼一隻阿誠仔狗，
狗要吃魚也要吃蝦，
狗要吃肉也要吃草，
狗做密使兼買軍火，
阿輝仔飼狗真正棒

[translation]
Ah Hui Boy kept a dog knwon as Ah Cheng Boy
The dog wants to eat fish and it also wants to eat shrimps
The dog wants to eat meat and it also wants to eat grass
The dog is a secret emissary and also sells military armaments
Ah Hui Boy's kept dog is really great

The whole world knows that this song is about former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and his top aide Su Chi-cheng (蘇志誠) and their involvement in the scandal over the National Security Bureau slush fund to secure diplomatic relations with South Africa (see Taipei Times).

Another song is The Green Terrorists, which includes the following lyrics:

假借綠色和平變綠色恐怖分子，
南台灣的水蓮槍擊騙子，
你用綠色恐怖暗殺普世價值，
全世界都把你嘆為觀止，
福爾摩沙的選舉要靠鮪魚肚子，
才能連續兩任總統的位子。

[translation]
Green Peace was turned into Green Terrorists
In Shuilian of southern Taiwan the liar was shot
You used green terrorism to assassinate common values
The whole world was astounded by you
The election in Formosa depended on the tuna belly
in order to continue for a second presidential term.

This song is an obvious reference to the attempted assasination of President Chen Shui-bian on the eve of last year's presidential election.

Understandably, there are people who are unhappy that public funds should be spent to showcase these overtly political messages.  In the words of a Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, this was like "bringing up the mice to chew on the clothed bag" (飼老鼠咬布袋).  In response, the Government Information Office Director-General Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said the Government Information Office respects that public television should have autonomy but also "social responsiblity."  Yao said that it was "not nice" to insult the leader of the country, so it is up to public television to make a full account of this matter to society.  This is a measured and considered response to a specific piece of information, because the Government Information Office really does not want to micro-manage what appears every second on public television.