DPP's Crushing Defeat Cautions Both Parties
By Chou Yang-shan
China Times, November 26, 2022
The results of the November 26 local elections are largely consistent with predictions by the news media prior to the election. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered a crushing defeat and lost most of its political turf. The populace used their votes to teach the DPP a lesson, punishing the party for its deceit, corruption, and incompetence. In contrast, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) scored a landslide victory sweeping over three-fourths of local governments across Taiwan. The following messages conveyed by the election outcome are worth special attention.
First, voters decided to cast votes of no confidence against the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen. In the meantime, voters also cast no confidence votes against the “Tsai faction” within the DPP. The victory of such maverick candidates as Chiang Wan-an of Taipei, Chang Shan-cheng of Taoyuan, Kao Hung-an of Hsinchu City, and Hsieh Kuo-liang of Keelung lent testimony to the mainstream opinion that the people could no longer tolerate the autocracy, stubbornness, and lack of wisdom of the Tsai administration. Therefore, not only the prestige of President’s Tsai leadership plummeted, but her factional and collective leadership within the party also shattered completely, exerting pressure on her to abdicate party leadership. She might become a lame duck in advance and can no longer lead by decree.
Second, the DPP’s dominance in southern Taiwan and KMT’s in northern Taiwan are gradually in transition. Even in Tainan or Pingtung, the DPP no longer enjoyed a certain victory, and voters there demonstrated that they were not blind in following the DPP or kidnapped by partisan color. Voters said that they will never ignore the factional struggle, corruption, incompetence in epidemic prevention, and avarice of the DPP. This, no doubt, rings an alarm bell to the DPP administration.
Furthermore, in light of cross-strait and international changes, the tactic of “resisting China to protect Taiwan” has become a political myth! Our people spire cross-strait peace, not a zero-sum confrontation and threat of war, not to mention the prospects of Taiwan becoming the next Ukraine. Taiwanese understand we would never allow to give a free ride to those anti-China foreign forces to reap profit. The aspiration of peace across the Taiwan Strait among the voters in this local election has proved that the appeal of Taiwan independence and “resisting China to defend Taiwan” of the DPP was a downright fiasco. That President Tsai tried wholeheartedly to execute her “America first” mission has faced with unprecedented challenges.
On the other hand, the behavior of young voters also demonstrated that the so-called “naturally pro-independence” is by no means a sure monolith which DPP could lead them freely to an ignorant and limitless abyss. Maybe they were reluctant to vote directly for KMT candidates, but the high popular support of Kao Hung-an, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) candidate for Hsinchu mayor, and Huang Shan-shan, independent candidate for Taipei mayor, revealed that the third force was another kind of option. Likewise, the victories of Chen Fu-hai in Kinmen and Chung Tung-chin in Miaoli, both formerly KMT-converted independents, explain that when the KMT fails to nomonate appropriate candidates or integrate primary contenders, most voters would support alternative favored candidates. To the KMT, this is no doubt a warning sign.
In the past, people in the patriarchal society in East Asia, used to take a despise attitude against female leading role. However, with the lapse of time and circumstance change, female power began to rise. In this election, many outstanding female candidates won the election through their own personal strength, and the number of them exceeded one-third of those elected. Among them the leadership of Mayor Lu Shiow-yen of Taichung was affirmed, highlighting that female political figures are an important indicator of democratic development. In comparison, they were not undone by their northern European counterparts. This is a major achievement by Taiwan, worthy to be cherished.
The author is professor at Chinse Culture University.
From: https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20221126003501-262104