At a meeting in Greater Kaohsiung, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday instructed the party’s mayors and commissioners to stick to three principles in public governance — “transparency, cooperation and efficiency” — to manifest its ability to govern the nation.
People sent a serious message through ballot box in the nine-in-one election on Nov. 29 “that there is no political party which can stay in power forever and that people are masters of the nation,” Tsai said when addressing to party members elected or re-elected to run 13 cities and counties who will take office on Thursday.
With civil society coming into being in Taiwan, public affairs are subject to even harsher public scrutiny because people are becoming more demanding regarding the quality of governance, Tsai said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
“At this moment in time, the DPP has no option but to make accomplishments in cities and counties at the party’s helm,” Tsai said.
“As long as the DPP can achieve good governance at local levels, people will be at ease when they decide to give the DPP the mandate to govern the nation,” she added.
The DPP won 13 of the 22 cities and counties up for grabs, leaving the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which previously held 15, with just six.
Tsai said she would not dispute that the election results were more a reflection of public dissatisfaction with the KMT, and said she was certain that the DPP did not “have its head turned” by its gains.
“The DPP cherishes what people expect from it and will not take the victory for granted,” she said.
In a show of its determination, the party has set up a platform on which the 13 city mayors and county commissioners can cooperate to facilitate coordination across governance boundaries.
DPP officials signed a joint statement vowing that they would shake off a self-centered mentality and look at problems from the prospective of providing overall benefits to society.
Tsai demanded that DPP officials abide by the principles of transparency, cooperation and efficiency in governance to pursue the goals of making available to the public data on spending, as well as policy development and implementation, and creating maximum public benefits without an ego or a partisan biases.
The alliance is to be led by Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).
DPP officials said the platform is open to cooperation with KMT members and others in the pan-blue camp who share the same values and ideals.
At the meeting, Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) identified what she called the uneven distribution of resources among cities and counties as one of the top issues to address the nation’s strained fiscal position.
Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) advised newly elected city mayors and county commissioners against taking out loans recklessly in the hopes of “proving their performance” in the first term.
Lai said they should instead observe fiscal discipline because the rise in the debt-to-GDP ration to 36 percent, from 28 percent when the DPP was in power, is a warning to the nation as a whole.
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