In Saturday’s legislative by-elections, generally seen as a warm-up for the year-end direct municipality elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took three of the four legislative seats, therefore winning four local elections in a row.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was defeated in both pro-KMT Taoyuan and Hsinchu counties, and only managed a narrow win in pro-KMT Hualien County. This showed that KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) were unable to address and suppress internal struggles between the party’s local factions.
Despite holding 75 legislative seats, the KMT suffers from poor local mobilization and administrative performance. It is unable to take advantage of its status as the ruling party and it does not understand what the public wants.
The defeats further damaged the party’s rule, making the direct municipality elections more unpredictable.
The successful integration of local factions has always been fundamental to the KMT’s victories and the factions have also been a cornerstone of the party’s rule.
To promote local reform, Ma and King carefully picked candidates and formed campaign teams that launched swift and fierce attacks. However, voter turnout in by-elections normally stands at about 40 percent. Since such elections are only held in very few districts around the nation, it is difficult to set an agenda that attracts the public. Obviously, the KMT’s electoral strategy crumbled under electoral pressure.
Members of the KMT’s local factions have long filled important positions and those social resources have been used to promote social mobilization. Given this longstanding systemic advantage, it should be easy for the KMT to manipulate elections, but once national and local party leaders disagree on nomination issues, local governance often collapses and conflict appears.
Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Hualien counties are pro-blue, but Ma and King were still unable to handle the superficial integration of local factions. Nor were they able to awake voter support and passion.
If the system is the foundation of the KMT’s rule, it only highlights the success of the party’s propaganda, but it fails to explain the party’s underachievement since regaining power.
Recently, Ma was ranked 37th in a Reader’s Digest survey on the credibility of Taiwanese public figures. The low ranking echoed his unsatisfactory support ratings, showing that while he may be trusted by the deep pan-blues, he is not trusted by the general public. The problem is not election technique or local factions — it is Ma’s poor performance that has killed the passion voters showed during the 2008 presidential campaign, as their expectation turned into disappointment and even desperation.
The most obvious impression the public has is of an uncompetitive bureaucratic system that ignores their complaints. The government’s policy implementation has been too lax, as it has been unable to resolve domestic social pressure created by the economic downturn. Internationally, Taiwan’s global competitiveness is stumbling, as the trade-oriented nation fails to handle industrial transformation.
In the face of domestic and international pressures, Taiwan is worse off than South Korea, which has left the financial crisis behind and is moving forward. Moreover, as Taiwan leans toward China, will the imbalanced development result in the polarization of rich and poor?
As the direct municipality elections approach, searching for the best way to rule the nation is key to winning back public trust.
Liu Dsih-chi is an associate professor at Asia University’s Department of International Business.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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