The presidential campaigns of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) bear striking similarities to each other, despite the two camps professing to offer different visions for Taiwan's future, political observers said.
Wang Tai-li (王泰俐), an assistant professor in National Chengchi University's journalism department, said that much of the campaign literature and slogans -- and even the appearances of the campaign rallies of KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and DPP candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) -- resemble each other to a significant degree.
"If you turned down the volume on the television and watched the campaign rallies of the two candidates, it would be difficult to tell them apart," Wang said.
"I don't know if the two camps are intentionally moving toward the center, but the content of their respective campaigns has certainly become less distinguishable," she said.
Wang said that KMT rallies have increasingly incorporated elements of the DPP's Taiwan-centric stance, including more use of Hoklo in speeches, as well as props that display traditional local culture, such Taiwanese hand puppet theater.
Ever since President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Taipei mayoral election victory in 1994, achieved with the aid of campaign advisers who helped him establish support among young people and the more "Taiwan-first" voters, the KMT has tried to learn from the DPP's campaign experiences, Wang said.
Meanwhile, Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) said that in contrast to US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have tried to stress their differences in their campaigns for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Taiwan's presidential candidates "seem to intentionally be trying to stress their similarities to each other, whether in terms of policies or attitudes."
Wu Juei-jen (吳叡人), an assistant researcher at Academia Sinica, said that the similarities between the campaigns was a manifestation of a consensus on distinct Taiwan-related issues, such as Taiwanese identity, which was repressed under the past authoritarian regime of the KMT.
However, Wu said, it is possible that the KMT, after witnessing the effectiveness as a vote-getter of promoting Taiwanese identity, is only using these kinds of slogans as a campaign strategy to prevent the DPP from monopolizing them.
Nevertheless, he said, even though the KMT's promotion of values highlighting Taiwan's unique identity might be based primarily on political considerations, the result could be that Taiwanese identity is being strengthened in the process as the KMT changes its way of thinking, leading to a further consolidation of Taiwan-centric values.
Also See: Vision of community empowerment
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS