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Campaign attacks are sometimes worthwhile

Three social elites -- Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), Cloud Gate Dance Theater founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and Formosa Plastics Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) -- published a "solemn statement" regarding the presidential election in a front-page newspaper advertisement in mid-January.

Unfortunately, some media intentionally misrepresented the ad as a condemnation of negative campaigning meant to protect the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party alliance from its troubles with the issue of party and private assets.

But is negative campaigning necessarily bad for an election campaign that has no positive meaning?

Campaign attacks are carried out in two ways.

The first is called image attack -- for example, attacking the KMT's corruption and the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) pro-Taiwan independence stance, as well as calling other candidates feeble, corrupt or capricious. An image attack is usually made up of accusations against personal characteristics, made to entrench voters' preconceived ideas.

The second type is called issue attack -- attacking opponents' political accomplishments or policies or stances on specific issues. Examples of this are the KMT's criticism of the DPP's referendum proposal and the latter's criticism of the former's party assets.

The accusations in such negative ads have clarified various problems, and have made parties and their candidates unable to hide, echoing the social elite's call for resuming "rationality and clearness."

Through the KMT's attacks, we can think over the meaning and necessity of holding a preventive referendum on election day.

Through the DPP's attacks, we can understand how the KMT inappropriately obtained national assets that originally belonged to the people.

Through the attacks of both, we can have a clear picture of the two presidential candidates' wealth.

The quantity of their wealth is not the key point. What matters is whether illegitimate conduct occurred.

In addition, through a comparison of the negative ads in this election and in the previous presidential election, perhaps voters can also see the drastic changes in the attitudes of some politicians.

Thanks to negative ads, voters are able to view the two candidates more rationally.

Elections are always accompanied by negative campaigning. During the 1998 Taipei mayoral election campaign, the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attacked President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who was Taipei mayor at the time, with negative television ads regarding the city's parking and robbery problems.

Regardless of whether his points of view were right or wrong, they were very clever negative ads that calmly took aim at specific issues.

Negative campaigning should not be vicious. In the 1997 local government chief elections, the KMT attacked Sisy Chen (陳文茜), then director of the DPP's propaganda department, by calling her a urinal.

Also, negative campaigning should not attack humanity.

It is wrong for the KMT to attack Chen's grandson in its ad. All grandsons are precious in the eyes of their grandparents.

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) will surely feel that this ad is inappropriate if he becomes a grandfather someday.

The martial-law era has ended. It is precisely through negative campaigning that we can tear off candidates' masks so that the truth can be shown.

As for the rest, it will be judged by voters.

Cheng Tzu-leong is a professor in the advertising department at National Chengchi University.

TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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