TSU vows to repeat its election surprise

Despite the fact that few people expect a strong showing by the TSU in the year-end local government elections, the party considers the campaign to be a great chance to expand its power base at the grassroots level, according to TSU party officials.

The officials say the party has to demonstrate that it is serious by fielding quality candidates, even though it knows that these candidates may not win the battle.

"For a small party to grow, it is very important to show its supporters that it has the will to win," said Lee Shang-ren (李先仁), director of the party's policy center. "Regardless of the fact that the media and political analysts don't give us much of a chance, we consider the year-end election to be a crucial staging ground and we are confident that we'll win the battle."

With half a year to go before the elections, parties of all stripes are trying to seek potential candidates to run in the race to become mayors and city councilors for Taipei and Kaohsiung cities -- and the TSU is no exception.

"We will not be absent from the race for the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoralties," said TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), after the party nominated its candidates for city councilors in Kaohsiung city a couple of weeks ago.

The party has nominated six candidates to run for positions as city councilors in Kaohsiung city -- and it aims to complete its nomination process for the candidates in Taipei City by the end of May.

As for the mayoral election, the TSU is trying hard to persuade Annie Lee (李安妮), the daughter of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), to run for the mayoralty in Taipei City. In addition, senior advisor to the National Security Council Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強), a former secretary-general of the TSU, and minister without portfolio Huang Hwei-chen (黃輝珍), a loyal follower of the ex-president, are both tipped to be the party's potential candidates to run in the mayoral race.

In spite of the party's continuous efforts, very few in Taiwan's political circles have taken the party serious because most deem the TSU to be a minor force that does not deserve much attention.

"I don't see [the TSU] as having the ability to survive for long, because they don't yet completely comprehend how politics should operate," DPP lawmaker Julian Kuo (郭正亮) said.

Kuo referred to the fact that many TSU legislators drew a lot of media attention by introducing a number of politically sensitive issues since they took their oaths at the start of February.

The legislators first proposed halving the number of legislative seats, they then suggested legislation requiring that presidential candidates must have been born in Taiwan. They have also suggested making Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal languages the nation's official languages.

Describing the TSU lawmakers' actions as "hit and run" tactics, Kuo said that, although the TSU legislators have attained their goal of getting the public's attention, they have failed to come up with effective ways to make the proposals sustainable and to lead the discussions toward constructive outcomes.

The TSU lawmakers acknowledged the criticism from other politicians but say they still regard their performance to be an effective strategy for getting votes.

"Given that the DPP is compelled to take a more moderate line after it took power, the TSU has to take advantage of its position as an opposition party to raise controversial issues -- which the DPP is afraid to -- to win the hearts of voters who support the Taiwan-first path," said TSU lawmaker Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘).