As the race for Hualien County commissioner moves into the final stretch for Saturday's by-election, the Aboriginal vote -- which remains largely undecided -- has become a crucial factor that could end up favoring the dark horse.
"Hualien County's population is made up of four major ethnic groups: Hakka, Hokkien, Aborigines and mainlanders," said Wu Tsai-hsun (吳采勳), a veteran journalist with China Television stationed in Hualien.
PHOTO: YANG YI-CHUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Wu Tsai-hsun said that votes from the Hakka, Hokkien and mainlander groups have been largely secured by KMT maverick Wu Kuo-tung (吳國棟), the DPP's You Ying-lung (游盈隆) and the KMT-PFP alliance nominee Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) according to their campaign and party appeal. But, the journalist noted, the majority of Aboriginal voters have yet to show any clear preferences.
A Hakka himself, Wu Kuo-tung's strength in the county's Hakka community is unquestionable.
You is trying to pick up Hakka votes in addition to securing the DPP's traditional 30 percent support from Hokkien voters in the county.
Hsieh, with stumping from both KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"The Aboriginal voters -- which make up to 23 percent of the Hualien population, or about 50,000 votes -- therefore will now become the crucial factor and have a direct bearing on the outcome of Saturday's election," Wu said.
To woo support and votes from the Aboriginal community, You has already promised in his campaign to offer NT$5,000 per month to the county's 200 Aboriginal chiefs so that they can provide better services to their communities.
You has also pledged to create 2,000 jobs for Aborigines.
In addition, Premier Yu Shyi-kun last Saturday announced that the Truku people (
In another bid to help boost You's candidacy in the Aboriginal communities, President Chen Shui-bian (
It is largely believed that Chen's visit to Hualien for a baseball game is meant to illustrate support and concern for the region's Aborigines and its baseball programs.
It is probably no accident that the visit comes in the wake of news that Tsao Chin-hui (
"East coast Aboriginal communities have long been staunch supporters of the pan-blue camp," Wu said. "But with the appealing pledges made by You, it is hard to predict who the Aboriginals' votes will eventually go to."
Meanwhile, Hsieh has also tried to portray himself as a "friend" of Aborigines. This past weekend, Hsieh, accompanied by both Lien and Soong, made frequent street processions through the regions' Aboriginal communities such Hsiulin and Sofang townships and took part in Aboriginal festivities.
With the approach of the election then, it seem that Aboriginals -- generally regarded as a minority and disadvantaged group -- have suddenly been propelled to the top of the heap and become the favorite of all political parties.
Still, elections are -- by their very nature -- ?full of contingencies, and the effectiveness of these pro-Aboriginal campaigns will not be really be known until the election is over and all the votes are counted.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater