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Editorial: Taipei loses in a sham contest

The real electoral contest today is for Kaohsiung mayor. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Chu (陳菊) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英) are close enough in polls for there to be doubts on the result.

The same cannot be said for Taipei, whose residents have been comprehensively stiffed by a line-up of candidates who have -- bar one -- demonstrated their contempt for the electorate.

There was a time when DPP supporters thought former premier and Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) could swing the result their way. He is, after all, an experienced politician with years of competent governance in the southern metropolis under his belt. Instead, Hsieh's campaign has been abysmal.

Hsieh's lie-down-and-die approach included spreading puerile gossip about text messages and promising to lobby for the Olympics in 2020 -- one of the most idiotic ideas yet to come from the DPP stable -- at the expense of genuine urban issues. The result: a presidential hopeful falls flat on his face.

Winning Taipei City was always going to be a struggle for Hsieh, but the election offered a platform for something bigger and the chance to restore party morale. Now, not only has he killed off his Taipei mayoral aspirations, but the sheer incompetence and laziness of his campaign will also give smarter DPP heads reason to doubt his ability to run for president in 2008. You can't expect to be mayor, let alone president, if you don't campaign hard every day, all day, in places that would not normally vote for you.

DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun's job and presidential ambitions are also on the line, even if Chen Chu pulls off a win in Kaohsiung, because of the amateur-hour debacle in Taipei. The DPP clearly hasn't learned from the beatings it took in the legislative and county commissioner elections. If it wants to compete, it needs to reconnect with voters on issues other than the Chinese menace and Taiwanese identity.

The DPP also needed faux independent candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) to chip away at KMT candidate Hau Lung-bin's (郝龍斌) vote. And it has been vintage Soong on the hustings -- a vulgar display of insults and threats and hamfisted efforts at intrigue. But his irrelevance to Taipei City's future and rejection by its voters will likely see his career head toward China, where his best friends are, because he has just about expired as a force in a liberal democracy.

Comfortable with the support of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Hau has only needed to smile, look pleasant, shake hands and stay out of trouble. A release of token policies in the last few days did not hurt his prospects, but policy and reform of governance have nothing to do with this election.

Independent candidates Li Ao (李敖) and Clara Chou (周玉蔻) were never in the race, but there was some hope that their presence might have pushed the others a little harder. Instead, a tired and boorish Li failed to spark, and through her histrionics Chou showed why the Taiwan Solidarity Union -- itself in disarray -- was correct in dumping her.

Oddball independent Ko Tzu-hai (柯賜海) has provided the only life in this campaign, standing on street corners everywhere with his mock sword and oversized tie. He deserves credit for his energy and initiative, qualities that gained him surprising support at the last election for Hualien County commissioner.

But the scene overall is dispiriting. Outgoing Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, not President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), set the standard that we now follow: Taipei City is a playground for underachieving presidential aspirants, who seemingly enjoy unlimited leave for political activity. The bureaucracy will continue to run the city in its happy-go-lucky fashion, while the visionary reforms that marked Chen Shui-bian's time as mayor are a distant dream.
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