It is perhaps inevitable around the time of 228 Memorial Day that there is discussion of Taiwan's ethnic divisions and problems. This year it has been exacerbated by the presidential election. In the current atmosphere, where both sides see this election as make or break, the only thing that is surprising is that ethnic enmities haven't made their baleful influence felt more fully.
One of the interesting facts about ethnic campaigning in Taiwan is that it is always the pan-blues who speak out most loudly against it while they also benefit the most from ethnically motivated voting. The overwhelming majority of Mainlanders are pan-blue "iron votes." The pan-blues have always used ethnic campaigning to reinforce this by playing up a siege mentality among the Mainlanders, frightening them with tales of what a vengeful Hoklo-dominated Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would do were it elected -- remember the canard about canceling veterans' pensions?
And yet while the pan-blues promote ethnic voting among their core constituency, they also denounce it elsewhere. This is for the obvious reason that the pan-blues cannot get elected on Mainlander votes alone -- there simply aren't enough of them. So the pan-blues manage to have their ethnic cake and eat it. They play on ethnic fears to keep Mainlanders loyal and denounce ethnic campaigning to win over Taiwanese votes.
This is not to say that the DPP is without fault. Partly because of its origins as a party of the Hoklo gentry deprived of its political rights by Mainlander incomers, its recognition of the rights of other ethnic groups has been patchy. Only since the DPP became the governing party has it obviously reached out to Hakka voters, and its relationship to Aborigines is still far from ideal.
Nevertheless, given that the DPP obviously can win an election on Hoklo votes alone, it has been remarkably restrained. What could be easier than a campaign based on "Taiwanese should not vote for Chinese"? Yet there has been none of this in the election campaign so far. It is ironic that though it is the DPP that practices restraint when playing the ethnic card, it is the pan-blues who make most of the criticism.
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