Hsieh putting pressure on the DPP

Kaohsiung mayor and DPP chairman, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), recently lashed out at what he called the central government's lack of concern about local governments' needs.

Political analysts say that Hsieh's attacks mainly reflect DPP members' strong fears that they might suffer heavy losses in the year-end elections of legislators, county commissioners and city mayors.

Some DPP faction leaders said that Hsieh's angry words would help the ruling party to get more resources and assistance from the central government to benefit electoral campaigns.

"Hsieh's criticism will certainly tarnish the image of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration in the short term. But Hsieh's taking the lead to complain on behalf of the DPP's local leaders could further unite the whole party and pressure the president into changing his policies," said the editor-in-chief of Contemporary (當代) magazine, Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒).

Chin said that the DPP government's failure to carry out important campaign promises is a result of the obstructionism of the opposition parties and the central government's bureaucratic officials' unwillingness to cooperate with the DPP-led Cabinet.

Chin said that because the Cabinet cannot meet the needs of the DPP's local leaders, the ruling party would be unable to make a strong case for itself in the year-end elections.

"For example, for trying to help Kaohsiung to acquire authorization to issue lottery tickets nationwide, Hsieh was punished by then premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) during the KMT's rule. Now the DPP has taken office, but the Cabinet is still having Taipei issue the lottery tickets, which naturally disappoints and exasperates Kaohsiung's mayor, Hsieh," Chin said.

"In addition, southern Taiwan has suffered a higher unemployment rate and been deprived of more financial resources than the north. If the issuance of lottery tickets can bring revenue for local governments, Kaohsiung certainly has every reason to seek authorization" to issue tickets, Chin said.

DPP lawmaker Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) said that Chairman Hsieh's severe criticism toward the central government clearly reflected the DPP's worry of losing the upcoming elections.

Most of the DPP's supporters come from central and southern Taiwan, but now the unemployment problem in the south is much more serious than that in the north, Hong said.

Hong added that Hsieh's indignation could prompt Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to mobilize the bureaucracy to implement the DPP government's policies.

"Balancing development in the north and south is one of the DPP's major campaign promises," Hong said. "However, the whole system of government, which had been cultivated by the KMT's past five decades of rule, has failed to meet the DPP Cabinet's expectations."

Then there is Hsieh's fight with Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章). A senior official in the DPP's headquarters revealed that the party has privately requested Premier Chang to replace Yen several times, but President Chen's trust and confidence in Yen has never been shaken.

"If DPP members can control financial departments, the government can thus cut off the KMT's long-standing relationship with banking institutions," Chin Heng-wei said.

During the Cabinet reshuffle in March, Premier Chang and the DPP's headquarters asked to replace Yen in the hope of leading the nation's financial departments. However, Yen was still retained by the president, illustrating Chen's deep trust in him.