Now that three out of the "big four" of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have declared their intention to run in DPP presidential primary, it is a good time to remind the DPP's leadership that a clean, honest and fair campaign is essential -- not only to improve the party's image with the general population, but to avoid giving opposition parties fuel for their own campaigns.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (
They also share the burden of not wanting to waste such a hard won resource. Whereas the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has no natural affinity with democratic processes and will therefore most likely select their leader through a series of somewhat clouded contortions and negotiations, the DPP cannot afford this "luxury."
DPP candidates have to undergo the far more potentially painful process of open campaigning, which requires not only party acceptance but public acceptance.
The guiding principle of the primaries must therefore be that each candidate delivers a coherent, progressive yet constructive and positive platform for election.
This is not an election for a banana republic but rather for the highest office in this country and it requires the respect that should be accorded to it. That means these candidates must present themselves as leaders capable not just of the domestic political savvy that appeals across the party spectrum, but also as individuals capable of leadership on the international stage.
The DPP primaries would do well to be characterized by a complete absence of any negative campaigning, either against other candidates or parties. This will be difficult but it will ultimately demonstrate a maturity and respect for democracy that will help the electorate believe that whoever wins will be a potentially trustworthy, steady and sincere leader.
I hope that the candidates will focus on the issues of environmental protection, clean, open and efficient government, welfare and labor protection, economic development, national security and issues of constitutional improvement in that order.
I hope that they will avoid sensational promises of independence (why promise something you already have?), character slurs and short-lived gambits to raise their own popularity at the expense of party unity. Central to each candidate's presentation must be a genuine desire to protect and maintain the sovereignty of the Taiwanese people and a refusal to even entertain dubious speculation about so-called "ethnic tensions."
For their part, the KMT will need to field a candidate who can unite the country while critically respecting the right of the Taiwanese to self-determination.
This will be problematic given their lack of candidates that can command the trust and respect of a majority of people at the national level outside of Taipei.
Above all, both parties would do well to avoid looking at US presidential elections for guidance on how to run a campaign of substance.
The Taiwanese public are rapidly maturing politically and crying out for respectable and committed leaders who are not so easily tainted by the accusations they so carelessly throw against others. William Arthur Wood, a 19th century pottery magnate, once said that leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation.
Now is the time for those who lead to justify why they should continue to do so.
Ben Goren
Ilan
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past