With the Nov. 29 elections around the corner, it is understandable that candidates are picking up the pace of their efforts to woo voters.
Given that campaigns provide voters with the opportunity to scrutinize a candidate’s integrity and platform before casting their ballots, it is inevitable that candidates become more competitive — and confrontational — in the lead-up to election day.
The public also gets excited about the campaign season, as voters look forward to hearing candidates’ plans and visions for their respective constituencies. The last thing anyone wants to see is a negative campaign full of innuendo, smears and vicious attacks.
However, some recent incidents have hinted that this is the direction campaigns for the nine-in-one elections are heading.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu’s (胡志強) re-election team rolled out an online advertising campaign late last month titled “Losers’ counterstrike.” The plot of the 10-episode commercial is about a family of “losers” that can no longer take living in a city burdened by massive debts and decides to move to Greater Taichung, which reportedly has the best fiscal standing of the nation’s five special municipalities.
It comes as no surprise that the commercials were not well-received. The scenes and language — which Hu’s campaign team might think of as humorous — were anything but that. There are scenes of loan sharks resorting to violence and hints of suicide. Then there is the fact that while Hu, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, is running in Greater Taichung, he still feels the need to take a jab at Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) by ridiculing her city’s finances.
The creativity of Hu’s campaign team should be noted. However, why Hu — who has already served 13 years as mayor — felt the need to run such a negative and unpleasant commercial, instead of focusing on his achievements in office and vision for the future, is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who is executive director for KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) campaign, stirred up more controversy earlier this week.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Tsai put up a photograph of independent mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) giving the thumbs up while posing with a group of students at Ketagalan Academy that Tsai said was taken a day after the Greater Kaohsiung gas pipeline explosions that killed 30 people and injured 310. Tsai accused Ko of not caring about the disaster, only about his campaign.
It turned out the photo was taken last year and that Ko was at the academy on Monday for a non-campaign-related event.
Elections are about choosing the most capable candidate. Negative campaigning not only blurs the focus of candidates’ campaign platforms and misleads voters, but also works as a catalyst for hostility and hatred.
What the public hopes to see are candidates competing on the merits of concrete political platforms and engaging in substantial discussions of their visions for their constituents’ welfare.
While the candidates may be more concerned about the final poll results and who will emerge as the winners on election day, they ought to be reminded that ultimately, win or lose, their manner and the level of class they demonstrate throughout the election campaign count just as much in the hearts of voters.
Elections are integral to any democracy. All candidates have a responsibility to uphold a campaign standard that is fair, positive and substantive.
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