Editorial: DPP appears to have lost its way

Things are not looking good for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) these days in the run-up to next month's local government elections. In the past, the party was known for its ability to generate debate topics and formulate and execute well-planned campaign strategies. However, in the campaign for mayoral and county commissioner seats, the DPP seems to be completely on the defensive. Even its offense seems weak and missing the point. With less than a month left until election day, DPP has little time to turn things around.

The two biggest indicators of the DPP's predicament are perhaps the races for the Taipei County commissioner and Ilan County commissioner. Both counties currently have DPP commissioners, which ought to be advantageous to the party's candidates for these posts. Both DPP candidates, Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) in Taipei County and Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) in Ilan, are considered political heavyweights and were once favored to win. Luo is a rising political star, seen as a prodigy personally schooled by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Chen Ding-nan (陳定南)repeatedly received top scores in the public's ratings of Cabinet members when he was minister of justice. He has also served as Ilan County commissioner before.

Theoretically both men should have been able to win their races with their eyes closed. However, in recent opinion polls, Luo is in a virtual tie with his main opponent, while Chen is trailing closely behind his biggest rival.

All would agree that the alleged corruption scandal involving former deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), who was once a close confidant of President Chen, is taking its toll on the DPP. After all, the DPP came into power on an anti-corruption, prof-reform platform.

Another problem is that the debate topics pitched by the DPP so far in this campaign have been largely non-starters. For example, while almost all voters would agree that the ill-gotten assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are a major problem that has to be addressed, the DPP has failed to offer a practical solution to the problem, given the KMT's intransigence and thick skin.

In contrast, the scandal involving Chen Che-nan had been manipulated in a sensational manner that is almost soap-operatic, with new "findings" produced almost every day. Perhaps months from now, evidence will show that many of the allegations were unsupportable or that individuals named were innocent. But in the meantime the general public remains wrapped up in the saga.

On the other hand, from a legal standpoint, the scrutiny over TVBS' ownership is justified in every sense. If the station has violated media-ownership laws, then it should be dealt with in accordance with the law, with no questions asked. But the timing of the scrutiny -- coming after the station released several stories detailing Chen Che-nan's alleged misconduct -- may hurt the government more than the station. It gives TVBS a chance to claim that the government is threatening the freedom of the press at a highly sensitive point in the election campaign.

Last week, when Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) said that the beauty of political democracy is in that if a party does not perform well and another party does a better job, then the people can elect the latter.

The sad thing in Taiwan is that while the DPP may not have performed up to expectation, the KMT and the People's First Party (PFP) are even worse. On the other hand, if that is all the DPP is counting on to win the party, then no wonder many people are becoming disillusioned by politics.