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Hsieh reflects on DPP election losses

Members of the Taiwan Youth Public Affairs Association hold up sunflowers at the launch of a “Sunflower campaign” at the Taipei City Council yesterday. The group wants the campaign to encourage the Democratic Progressive Party to reform and move forward. PHOTO:CNA

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the party would be unable to win majority support if it continues to appeal to the public on the national identification issue only.

The party has to realize that “identification with Taiwan” — which the party pushed hard for in the past — has now become a consensus in the country, Hsieh said in an article published in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday, scrutinizing why the party lost elections to the KMT three times in a row — the 2005 local government election, January’s legislative election and the presidential election on March 22.

“‘Identification with Taiwan’ is also accepted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and it is no longer the DPP’s ‘patent,’” Hsieh said in the article. “The DPP needs to recognize the diversity of Taiwanese. People who take care of their businesses in China all year around, who come back to Taiwan only to vote for the KMT and who support direct links, a cross-strait common market, and eventual unification are all Taiwanese. Like us, living in [Taiwan] is their inalienable right.”

Raising the national identity issue to brand the DPP as being pro-Taiwan and label the KMT as being pro-China has been the main strategy adopted in the DPP campaign.

Hsieh’s attacks against KMT rival Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) US green card and election planks of developing closer economic ties with China in last month’s presidential campaign were a few examples.

“The DPP should adjust its relationship with Taiwan in the future,” Hsieh said in the article.

Hsieh, who served as premier under the DPP administration after the party came to power in 2000, said he has to take responsibility for the party’s major setbacks because he served in important positions in the DPP government and was also a main leader of the party.

In the article, he offered an apology to the public for four tasks he failed to fulfill.

“First, the country didn’t become harmonious because of my being at the helm. Second, I didn’t defend with my life the party’s promise of integrity and procedural justice. Third, the DPP government sacrificed progressive values for political power and the gap between the rich and the poor was widened under its rule. And fourth, I failed to refrain from factional fighting within the party,” Hsieh said.

Media reports of infighting grew after Hsieh recently accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of applying double standards in the handling of corruption charges.

Media reports said Hsieh criticized Chen for demanding that DPP members who were merely suspected of corruption be expelled from the party, but then being lenient when it came to Chen’s own family. Chen’s wife has been indicted for embezzlement and his son-in-law has been convicted of insider trading.

In an interview with cable television network SET TV on Thursday, Hsieh dismissed speculation that the DPP was mired in infighting ahead of the party’s election of a new chairman to replace him next month. Hsieh has decided to step down.

“It is incorrect to call our reflection [of the party’s election defeat] a power struggle,” Hsieh said in the interview, stressing that “there isn’t any need for infighting.”

To win the city and county chief elections late next year, Hsieh said the DPP must first engage in reflection and reform, while cementing party unity.

He also encouraged those interested in running for the DPP chairmanship to throw their hats into the ring. He expressed hope that the next chairman would be a reformer and would be able to reach out to grassroots communities.

Hsieh also said he “would probably attend” the May 20 inaugural ceremony of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou.

He said he would continue to keep a close eye on the government after president-elect Ma takes office on May 20.

On his plans after stepping down as party chairman, Hsieh said he hopes to share his experience in political and public affairs with the general public, particularly young people, to enable them to develop skill in supervising the government.

Hsieh also floated the idea of running a “shadow government” to monitor the government, which would be based on the DPP’s basic values and concept of a “wellbeing economy.”
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