The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost the mayoral by-election in Hualien on Saturday last week and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) called the outcome a testimony to the public’s dissatisfaction with the DPP central government. While the claim might seem like an overstatement, the DPP has not fared well in eastern Taiwan and might face steeper challenges as Chinese tourist numbers continue to wane.
Before the by-election, the KMT and the DPP were sending messages about possible results, and both had conveyed prospects that turned out to be contrary to the outcome: The DPP said its candidate had a good chance of winning, while the KMT said even a “slight defeat” would count as victory.
What the DPP probably had in mind was that while former Hualien mayor Tien Chih-hsuan (田智宣), whose death prompted the poll, was a DPP member, he had fought long and hard in a region where the KMT, or the pan-blue camp in general, has been the mainstay of the local politics and that DPP supporters needed a confidence boost for them to vote for a candidate who was likely to win.
The KMT’s mood, on the other hand, was one of being on edge. A loss in Hualien, where the pan-blue camp has been dominant for years, after the party’s thrashing in the nine-in-one elections in 2014 and the presidential and legislative elections in January, would be more devastating to the KMT than it would be to the DPP.
KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) aggressively campaigned for the her party’s candidate, spending the last three days before the election in the city, where KMT New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) garnered 46.37 percent of the vote compared with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 39.5 percent and People First Party Chairman James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) 14.13 percent in January’s election.
By calling the by-election a “mid-term exam” for Tsai’s administration and saying that even a loss by a small margin would be tantamount to winning, the KMT positioned itself to criticize the government for failing the public — coupled with Tsai’s plummeting approval ratings — in the event of victory.
The KMT might be overjoyed and secretly relieved by Saturday’s win, but DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang’s (段宜康) retort that he could not “pretend not to despise the voters” was a step too far.
While his respect for Tien and contempt for the vote-buying culture and shady political alliances with controversial figures might generate empathy, blaming the public for voting for the “wrong person” goes against not only the spirit of democracy, but also against strategic thinking, as the essence of democratic elections is that there would always be another one.
Even if the DPP has failed to gain ground on the east coast, particularly in Hualien and Taitung counties, it should have realized from Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) legislative win in Hualien in January that the task is not impossible, but takes time, effort and sincerity, after the authority-driven dominance of vested political interests in the nation’s mountainous regions started to be challenged with the beginning of democratization.
The residents of the two counties have been relatively less well-off than many of their compatriots and are more sensitive to convolutions in tourism. When the government trumpets the idea that China should not be the sole source of foreign tourists and Southeast Asian markets should be developed as well, supportive measures and guidance for diversifying the tourist base need to follow.
Helping Aborigines, many of whom live in the two counties, and boosting their status and confidence would be a good way to gain the public’s trust, just as the DPP and Tsai have endeavored, but putting food on the table is nonetheless a basic need for everyone.
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