Print

Mail

wiki links

Hualien Election: Some see vote as step backward for nation's democracy

With about 60 percent of Haulien County's 250,000 residents expected to turn out for the by-election, cheers from the KMT-PFP camp began to roar when Hsieh Shen-shan's (謝深山) votes exceeded 50,000.

But in the pan-green camp, the fourth election failure for DPP candidate You Ying-lung (游盈隆) in the county came as a disappointment to the Eastern Taiwan Society member Pan Hsiao-shue (潘小雪).

"While the society doesn't necessarily support the pan-green camp, we've supported the democratic ideal that Taiwan has approached slowly since the first Taiwanese, Lee Teng Hui (李登輝), became president -- including the transfer of power in the 2000 election and the hope that democracy could be stabilized by 2004," Pan said.

But to her, the Hualien election results are a step backward.

"The results indicate that Hualien is still not ready to think about democracy or the direction the country should be heading,"?Pan said.

However, assistant professor Lee Song Geng (李松根) at the Hualien Tung-Hua University Department of English Literature felt that the election results had been predictable.

Lee had earlier predicted that the election would be a battle between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, as Hualien is a county that relies heavily on central government assistance. Only candidates with the support of a political party -- and the inherent ability to carry out Hualien's much needed and developments -- would seem preferable to Hualien residents.

"Yet compared with Hsieh, You's promises seemed rather short-sighted," and lacked any long-term plan for the county, Lee said.

During the campaign, You had promised things such as cash for Aboriginal tribal chiefs, free dental work for the elderly and free lunches for school children.

"The KMT, on the other hand, has a long-term relationship with Hualien. Hualien, home to a number of retired servicemen -- predominantly those who served under the KMT government -- has always favored the KMT, " Lee said.

"You could even say that Hualien is autistic. It's very closed to the outside world and is unreceptive to changes," Lee said.

"Even for the younger generation in Hualien, You's lack of effort in promising to develop Hualien hardly seemed appealing. You ws not living in Hualien. Perhaps his lack of connection with Hualien and its people was his biggest downfall," Lee said.

"To appeal to Hualien people, You needed to find the right touch.? Hsieh at least had some policies regarding future development and environmental protection that strengthened his appeal to the younger generation in Hualien," Lee said.

?"The KMT has also had a long-term connection with local academics about how to improve Hualien, even if Hsieh doesn't personally have that knowledge," Lee said.

Pan agrees with Lee about You's lack of personal appeal.

"You just seems too rational and did not appeal to the Hualien people, who are very simple in nature," Pan said.

Both scholars agree that the uproar created by Hualien Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih (楊大智) over the crackdown on bribery had more or less been unfavorable to the DPP candidate.

"With most of the Hualien people being very easily manipulated, sensational media headlines either created a scandalous image or belittled the ruling DPP," Pan said.

The battle of Hualien was to decide who would serve a two- year term as county commissioner in an area with a population of slightly more than 250,000.

Still, the political parties treated it as a matter of life and death and a dress rehearsal for next year's presidential election.

Exactly what will become of Hualien, now that Hsieh and the alliance have won, remains to be seen.
This story has been viewed 2394 times.