Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) decision to go into seclusion for three days last week was a source of much speculation. There has not been much change in her rhetoric and demeanor since she re-entered the public forum, while she continues to fall further behind Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and is engaged in a seesaw battle with another potential rival, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
That monk Hsing Yun (星雲), a former member of the KMT’s central committee, praised Tsai and said that the DPP chairperson is set to win is a sign of the KMT’s changing fortunes.
Although Hung told the media that she was engaged in self-reflection during her break from the campaign, everything she has said ever since has been directed at her competitors. Offense might be the best defense, but as Hung and her team still have not grasped the issues that lie at the heart of next year’s election, her attacks only serve to put the spotlight on her shortcomings.
Next year’s election will provide a paradigm shift. It does not take a politician to understand that, after eight years in power, the KMT has failed to win public support.
Tsai doing so well in opinion polls does not necessarily mean that she is well placed, but could be a sign that public opinion has changed. As public opinion changes, Hung continues to criticize Tsai, but fails to rally public support or boost her own popularity.
Hung should tell the public that, if elected, she could do the things that the government has not done, and that she would work to reform the KMT and the government.
It is clear that KMT think tanks and financial strategists are behind the policies that Hung is pushing.
However, these policies are merely reflections of the KMT’s values and ideas. Hung’s suggestion that businesses be granted tax reductions equal to the pay raises they give their employees and that a national academy of empowerment be established can be seen as taking a mid to long-term tax reduction approach to address short-term salary issues: While salaries might not be raised for long, it will be difficult to reverse tax cuts for companies that have been given reductions. The only result of this policy would be to prop up business owners and further increase the wealth gap. The realization of the plans to adjust the capital gains tax would be the last nail in the coffin for this revenue source, further tilting the tax scales in favor of rich people.
Hung has said that problems concerning police officers, firefighters, nurses and substitute teachers would be solved within four years. These are longstanding issues, but they have been allowed to deteriorate further during the KMT’s eight years controlling both the Presidential Office and the legislature. If Hung cannot make the government launch the measures that she is suggesting now, why should voters believe that a Hung administration, which would be in an even worse situation than the current government, could do any better?
Hung has to turn her election prospects around if she is to come out on top. She cannot achieve that by criticizing Tsai; the key to success is to admit that the KMT, the government and herself are all in a difficult situation and that she must adjust her approach to the issues at hand, change her election strategy and gain the full support of the party and the government.
Hung must stop wasting energy responding to calls to replace her, and stop criticizing Tsai and Soong; she must show innovation and find issues that concern the public to slowly build an overall vision by solving problems.
If she does that, she might be able to reach voters and get her campaign moving.
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