We are not confronting the central government. We must emphasize that opening direct transport links with China will revitalize the economy of southern Taiwan and maybe even Taiwan itself. This is a convincing line of reasoning for most people. Who will cooperate with you if this project is beneficial to Kaohsiung only? We must communicate with others and show them how such a plan could help their economies.
Some people have said that because I'm from the KMT, the DPP-ruled central government and DPP-controlled neighboring localities would not cooperate with me even after I get elected. How is this possible? Would the president and central government benefit from it if Kaohsiung is not properly developed? We must remember that people share a common destiny in Taiwan.
TT: So far, you are the opposition candidate with the most support, but your support rating still lags far behind Hsieh's. What are the chances that you will unseat Hsieh?
Huang: This is normal for a challenger. The latest poll conducted by the United Daily showed that I am still behind Hsieh by 11 percentage points. This is already very close. In the election for Keelung mayor last year, the KMT candidate, Hsu Tsai-li (
This was mainly because around 30 percent of the electorate had not made a decision as to which candidate to vote for. In a survey conducted by National Sun Yat-sen University before the last Kaohsiung mayoral election, Mayor Wu Dun-yih (
TT: During the final weeks before polling day, how are you going to try to catch up with Hsieh? Now that the effort to integrate the opposition candidates has failed, do you plan to encourage strategic voting among supporters of the opposition camp to increase your chance of victory?
Huang: I'll do my job at my own pace and allow voters to get a better understanding of me. I'll try to make them realize that I will be an attentive and professional mayor with strengths in planning, communication and action.
I achieved many things that originally were impossible during my office as deputy mayor of Kaohsiung.
For instance, the merger of the teacher's research center and the civil servants' training center, which dragged out for many years with little progress because of strong opposition from the teachers. But I managed to complete the task with constant communication. Another case was the zoning of the Tsaishan Park, where building restrictions were enforced.
When up to 60 percent of the people do not wish to see Hsieh get re-elected, we anticipate that voters will integrate their votes automatically. I believe everybody understands by now that they must centralize their votes and vote for the candidate standing the best chance to win, or they will be wasting their votes.
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