Dec. 1 elections: Wu Ching-chi aims to put people first

Wu Ching-chi's (吳清基) teaching experience and 14 years at the Ministry of Education give him a unique perspective in his first campaign for elective office that pits him against two rivals.

"Being a novice candidate, I don't have a record to find fault with. Over the past nine months, the DPP's candidate, Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), hasn't found any points to attack me on," Wu said.

Also, with no pan-blue candidates running against him, Wu is confident he can win the votes of KMT and People First Party (PFP) supporters in the county.

He is also trying to woo supporters of the DPP's Mark Chen (陳唐山), who is not seeking re-election. Chen, a popular and widely-respected politician, has openly quarreled with the DPP over its choice of Su as its candidate.

"Chen is an open-minded politician and he will support anyone, regardless of affiliation, who will carry on his policies. Furthermore, Chen thinks Su doesn't stand a chance," Wu said.

Despite having allies in the DPP and the KMT's formal backing, Wu has few connections with local political factions in Tainan because he has spent much of his career in Taipei. He's trying therefore to appeal to the county's teachers and civil servants -- hoping his clean image and efforts to promote vocational education and educational policies will win their backing.

To emphasize his easy-going personality, Wu regularly espouses his "fools philosophy" (傻瓜哲學), saying that he doesn't take advantage of others and that he has few enemies.

Wu said that he doesn't feel threatened by the fact that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is backing Su, since opinion polls conducted by his supporters show that 23 percent of respondents say they won't be influenced by the president's preference and that 38 percent won't consider a candidate's party affiliation when casting their ballots.

However, he noted that 21 percent of those polled did say that they would probably vote for the candidate the president stumps for. In order to court votes from the president's loyal cadre of supporters in Tainan, Wu stressed his similarities to Chen.

"Like the president, I am also from a poor family. My mother cleaned toilets in a factory and she paid for my education, including my PhD, by doing this humble work," Wu said.

He also noted that he shared a bunk with the president when they served together in the military in 1969.

To illuminate the meaning of his slogan "Lives come first, tomorrow will be better" (生活第一，明天更好), Wu said that if elected, he will strive to strike a balance between the county's economic development and environmental protection.

In contrast to Su, Wu believes the proposed Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南工業區) should go forward.

The long-stalled plan, backed by the Tuntex Group (東帝士) and Yieh-loong Co (燁隆), to build petrochemical and steel-making plants on an environmentally-sensitive site in Tainan County should be completed, he said, if its backers can show how they will mitigate the anticipated negative impact.

Noting that the project is expected to create some 30,000 to 50,000 jobs and considering the 10,000 jobs in the offing at the soon to-be-completed Tainan Science-based Industrial Park (台南科學園區), Wu said he believes the county's long-term prosperity can be assured.