As first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青), known for rarely appearing at political events, started campaigning for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) this month, a new call for support of Ma as a strategic move to keep Chow in the Presidential Office has emerged in the pan-blue camp.
The idea was first proposed by poet Yu Kuang-chung (余光中) in response to recent disputes over Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan’s (蘇嘉全) wife, Hung Heng-chu (洪恆珠), for her appearance at a birthday party featuring male strippers almost a decade ago.
Hung’s attendance at the party, revealed through a video tape by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), sparked discussion about the behavior of political spouses in public.
Without commenting too much on Hung’s demeanor, Yu praised Chow for her plain and simple style, asking: “Does the public really want a new first lady?”
The Chinese-language United Daily News, a pro-blue newspaper, echoed Yu’s comments in its editorial and slammed Hung for attending a “wild party,“ suggesting that she could precipitate scandals if her husband were elected vice president.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Greater Kaohsiung branch picked up on the idea and turned the proposal into an election campaign activity on Saturday by inviting a group of female supporters to show their support for Chow. Rather than calling for support of Ma, they urged voters to support Ma’s re-election bid because “we do not want a new first lady.”
Such comments are clearly aimed at promoting Chow by portraying Hung as a self-indulgent political wife with a luxurious lifestyle. First, whether Hung’s attendance at the birthday party was inappropriate is debatable, as she did not know about the male stripper performance in advance.
The real irony in this new call is that by stressing the merits of Chow and making her the main attraction in the election campaign, it highlighted Ma’s sliding momentum and his failure to sustain support after a landslide victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Indeed, Chow’s popularity and influence should not be underestimated, as several polls released by local media outlets showed that more than 50 percent of Taiwanese said they were satisfied with Chow’s performance as first lady, and that she established a name for integrity, austerity and independence with her low-key demeanor and focus on charity work.
However, this is the presidential election, and the nation is choosing its leader among the three candidates, not their spouses. Voters should be comparing the campaign platforms of the candidates and weighing their choices as they closely watch the performance of the candidates.
In promoting the idea of voting for Ma for the sake of keeping Chow as first lady, one cannot help but wonder whether Ma’s camp and the KMT have become desperate, with Ma’s poor performance leaving them with no choice but to play the “first lady card.”
As Chow said when Ma was elected Taipei mayor in 1998, “people elect the mayor, not the mayor’s wife.”
She made it clear back then that as a political wife, she would not interfere with Ma’s public affairs and affect his decisions.
A presidential spouse’s traits, lifestyle and behavior may be important for building an image for the first family, but should not influence the president in his or her judgement on government policies or affect the public’s voting.
For voters, Chow’s remarks serve as a sharp reminder that they are electing a president, not a first lady. And the question we should be asking is: Do we want a president who has to rely on his wife’s popularity when seeking re-election?
As Taiwan is facing global crises from the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is again time to take stock. In terms of public health, Taiwan has made it through the COVID-19 challenge quite well. By combining masking, vaccinations and border controls, it has achieved a sufficiently protective herd immunity and is expected to end quarantine requirements for incoming travelers by the end of the summer. What about Ukraine? Here, Taiwan must assess four key players in its region. The first is Russia, which must be seen as a developing enemy. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Ukraine declared
During an online keynote speech on June 12, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said that when he was premier, he already knew that the Yun Feng (雲峰, Cloud Peak) medium-range supersonic land-attack cruise missile developed in Taiwan could reach Beijing. If Beijing were to attack Taiwan, Taipei would respond by firing the missiles and China would regret its aggression, he said. You’s comments were met by immediate criticism from political commentator Lai Yueh-tchienn (賴岳謙), who said that the Cloud Peak relied on guidance from the US’ Global Positioning System (GPS) to find its target. If war broke out in the Taiwan Strait,
China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, was launched on Friday. With a total displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes, the vessel is the largest of China’s three aircraft carriers. According to reports, the Fujian is about 300m long and 78m across at its widest point. It is conventionally powered, with a maximum speed of about 30 knots (55.6kph) and can carry 60 aircraft — including about 40 fighter jets, helicopters and airborne early warning and control aircraft. The deck of the carrier is equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system, which can speed up the take-off and landing of fighter jets. Once it
Two awards for contribution to the study of Sinology were announced on Monday. The first was for British art historian Jessica Rawson, named this year’s winner of the Tang Prize in Sinology. The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑). The second was for Slovenian Sinologist Jana Rosker, who won the Taiwan-France Cultural Award — established by the Ministry of Culture and the Institut de France’s Academy of Moral and Political Sciences — for her work introducing Taiwanese philosophy to Europe. Rosker said that Taiwan has integrated Western philosophy and Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism into a
RSS