The upcoming nine-in-one local elections will no doubt be a watershed for the nation’s political landscape, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might lose more offices, including in Greater Taichung and Taipei.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) has been trailing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) by a stable, double-digit percentage margin. The latest polls also show that independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), supported and endorsed by the DPP, has also been leading KMT candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) by at least 12 percentage points.
If the KMT were to lose both Greater Taichung and Taipei, it would be a devastating blow to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
The poor governance by Ma, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and the Cabinet is the key to the decline of public trust in the KMT. Recent incidents related to food safety have further undermined the party’s fragile popularity.
The growing public backlash against the government’s incompetence has cast a political shadow over the KMT’s campaigns. The tainted cooking oil scandal caused by Ting Hsin International Corp (頂新集團) could be the last straw with regard to the KMT’s electoral hopes, as well as potentially triggering a power struggle in post-election KMT politics.
That the Wei (魏) family who run Ting Hsin have had close personal connections with Ma, former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) family and high-ranking KMT officials has fostered accusations of cronyism. Ting Hsin’s problems are no longer just a matter of producing tainted cooking oil or poor management. The group’s owners and managers, especially the Wei brothers, have been shown to lack ethics and a sense of corporate responsibility as they risk consumers’ health to maximize company profits. And the conglomerate has been able to do so largely because the Wei brothers have built close business relationships with leaders from the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Ting Hsin has earned huge fortunes in China and therefore has been seen by the Ma administration a key indicator of Taiwanese business returning from China to Taiwan for investment.
Nevertheless, the scandal related to the group ignited Taiwanese anger because the conglomerate has been selling adulterated cooking oil domestically for years and the government has failed to successfully monitor such violations of food safety standards.
Rather, Ma held Ting Hsin up as a successful role model of Taiwanese firms returning from China for investment when he promoted his idea of establishing an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with Beijing four years ago.
Further, according to media reports, the government even gave a green light to Ting Hsin to monopolize the import of Chinese agricultural products to Taiwan.
In addition to serving as a political tool for Beijing to penetrate Taiwanese society, Ting Hsin has also tried to influence the local media market by purchasing a local cable television company.
Four years ago, another Taiwanese conglomerate in China, Want Want Group, attempted to acquire the Taiwanese print holdings of Next Media, but failed due to public objections. Now, Ting Hsin is applying to acquire cable television operator China Network Systems, which serves nearly 30 percent of cable TV customers in Taiwan.
If it were not for the scandal, the National Communications Commission might have already allowed Ting Hsin’s owners — who lack a sense of corporate responsibility and an ethical conscience — to step into the media sector.
Ting Hsin’s relationship with the Lien family is very close. That explains why Lien immediately called on Jiang to resign to take political responsibility for the cooking oil scandal. Lien’s campaign director, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), suggested that Ma should appoint outgoing Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to take over Jiang’s premiership. The Ma administration has taken stern measures to distance itself from Ting Hsin.
These are all crisis management measures adopted by Lien’s camp and the Ma administration to try to minimize the damage that the Ting Hsin scandal has wrought against the party’s campaigns.
However, the Ting Hsin case illustrates not only a potential KMT corruption scandal, but costly political complications arising from the way that the Ma administration fast-tracked cross-strait relations.
As demonstrated by the Sunflower movement earlier this year, the public has awakened. And the only effective way to punish the KMT government for its wrongdoings is through the nation’s democratic ballots on Nov. 29.
Liu Shih-chung is president of the Taipei-based Taiwan Brain Trust.
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