Although Tsai’s earlier awkwardness and shyness is gone, her speeches remain less than inspiring, which no amount of background noise can remedy. Nevertheless, the whole festival-like protest was obviously aimed at confirming her leadership.
Given this situation, the main point of the protest as far as the DPP is concerned was probably to prepare for the year-end mayoral and county commissioner elections.
On one hand, DPP leaders were probably wondering how much mobilizing power their former public servants still commanded, while on the other, they probably sought to determine if they could reawaken interest among disillusioned supporters.
The real competition, however, took place during the overnight sit-in following the protest. This extra performance only came about at the insistence of pro-Taiwanese organizations and is probably something the DPP could have done without. Since it had to support other organizations, the party could not remain at arm’s length and had to provide a few hardline speeches.
However, having allowed the DPP to use the more convenient gathering points by the MRT stations, the non-governmental organizations were not willing to let the DPP order them around and joined the sit-in on Ketagalan Boulevard.
Despite the DPP’s intensifying tactics, the government still appears to be in control. Maybe because it can fall back on state resources, it seems confident of victory in the year-end elections and unaffected by public criticism.
In the short term, Ma might be able to defend himself against the DPP by meeting each attack, but in the long run, arrogance will be the first step toward his defeat. The question is what will happen if the DPP wins the year-end elections.
Shih Cheng-feng is dean of the College of Indigenous Studies at National Dong Hwa University.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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