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The message is key, not the speech

No president can hope to enact an agenda without public support -- which can translate into votes and cooperation within bureaucracies. But in order to obtain public support, presidents have to devise ways to communicate effectively to the public through the media and by careful nurturing of key constituencies.

Ever since President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration, he has begun to take on the image of a master politician. The root of this new image has been an increase in presidential speeches.

In the past, presidents preferred written communications with government branches to speaking to the people. Under the KMT's one-party rule, political ambition was not encouraged. Presidential speeches were considered rather ceremonial. Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), however, created the image of a "rhetorical president" with his unique personality. His comments and attacks against China demonstrated the art and power of verbal expression of personal feelings.

Chen has clearly accelerated this trend. The mounting frustrations of trying to lead a minority government and the constitutional controversy over the distribution of powers between the president and premier drove him to speak out for his government.

At the beginning, Chen found out that he could not merely work behind the scenes to secure congressional support for legislation that he favored. As a result, he was forced to abandon efforts to lobby a parliament led by a KMT majority. So he appealed directly to the people instead. This strategy is evident in Chen's efforts to embrace the public and explain his governing ideals by means of public speeches.

This strategy, however, failed to generate more support. Instead, a series of factors, including Tang Fei's (唐飛) resignation as premier, the failure to boost the economy from the beginning and the breakdown of the initiative for government-opposition reconciliation, sent Chen's approval rates spiraling downwards and brought an end to the "image-is-every-thing" presidency.

It is generally assumed that the more presidents speak, the more they raise public hopes. Chen certainly followed this assumption. Even Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) once criticized Chen as being "too talkative" for a head of state, a trait, Lee said, which left the public confused as to the president's policy direction.

Chen's monthly press conference provides an opportunity for him to keep the public informed. Speeches on major occasions, such as the inaugural addresses, economic policy speeches and the national day address, have the greatest potential for providing substantive information to the nation. His public comments on other occasions, such as interviews with foreign media, target specific audiences and offer an arena for the president to unveil and explain specific policies.

But how substantive were these speeches? The more presidents talk, the less powerful each individual word becomes. It seems that Chen has spoken and appeared in public more often, without saying anything substantive to the nation as a whole. What may be the most troubling aspect of this development is that the public may be confusing presidential leadership with public speaking and public appearances.

The irony here is that the increased attention on public speaking actually may have left Chen with less time for the important functions of governance. Lee Yuan-tseh's suggestion is in fact timely advice for Chen.

Another irony is that the focus on public speaking may be obfuscating the issues, rather than making them easier for the public to understand. Since Chen's administration has not been able to attract majority support from the public, let alone stop boycotts by the opposition, his public statements only turn discussions of issues into partisan disputes. The controversies over the "spirit of 1992" and "the 1992 consensus," the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) and the economic stimulus plans are crystal-clear examples of this problem.

What Chen needs right now is the ability to "spin," to manipulate information on key issues to the benefit of his government. As a national leader, Chen should understand there is a vital synergy between issues and image. He should not adopt policy positions in the hope of shaping a favorable image. Rather, he should first identify his desired image, then select policy positions congruent with that image. By throwing out key issues for public discussion, the president can ensure that policy decisions are consistent with majority opinion. Image molds and directs the political agenda, not the other way around.

Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
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