President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday led the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to a landslide victory and became the nation’s first female president.
A professor of law with a doctoral degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Tsai, born in 1956, entered the limelight in 1998 as a member of a delegation that negotiated terms for the nations accession to the WTO, making a reputation for herself as a technocrat with level-headedness at the negotiation table.
In 2000, the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was elected president and Tsai was named Mainland Affairs Council minister. She carried multiple diplomatic duties, including ongoing WTO negotiations.
Photo: Bloomberg
Her most notable achievement was itemizing the “trade checklist” for Taiwan’s entry to the WTO. Fabled in policy circles, the checklist has since been adopted as a standard diplomatic document by nations wanting to enter the WHO.
It came as a surprise in 2008 when the DPP chairmanship fell to Tsai — seemingly an academic in an ivory tower, far removed from the average voter — at a time when the party’s electoral prospects were poor.
However, seemingly through sheer force of will, Tsai gradually developed a substantial grassroots following and resuscitated the DPP’s political fortunes.
Photo: AP
In 2008, the DPP’s reputation was at its worst, rocked by corruption allegations against then-president Chen, who was later convicted. That year, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) lost to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Ma Ing-jeou (馬英九) by a margin of 2 million votes and the party’s representation in the legislature dropped to 27 seats.
It was the DDP darkest hour. Many observers then agreed that the DPP’s demise was imminent and no one wanted to be at the helm of a sinking ship.
Then-National Tsing Hua University, assistant professor of sociology Yao Jen-to (姚人多) led a group of academics who successfully lobbied Tsai to take over the DPP.
Party insiders gave Tsai a political life expectancy of less than two years.
Tsai, an academic who was born into wealth, matured into a formidable politician despite a dry, scholarly style that was widely considered to be too phlegmatic for the public.
She was drab in public speech, lacking theatrical flair and scarcely made political promises. Yet her tenacity in the face of adversity became widely acknowledged as her hallmark trait.
In 2009, Tsai led the DPP to a much-needed victory in a legislative by-election in Yulin County, restoring the flagging morale of the party.
In the same year’s county commissioner and special municipality mayoral elections, the DPP recaptured Yilan County with 45 percent of the vote. Confidence in Tsai’s leadership grew as the DPP began to win a string of local victories.
In 2010, the DPP won several legislative by-elections in Taoyuan, Taichung and Taitung, followed by the successful grassroots elections in 2012 in Changhua’s Huatan (花壇) and Lugang (鹿港) townships.
Tsai also contended in the 2010 New Taipei City mayoral election and although she was defeated, she won over 1 million votes and cemented her position as the DPP presidential candidate for 2012.
The DPP lost its 2012 presidential bid, but Tsai refused to quit. She ordered thorough reforms to address the party’s flaws, focusing on the party’s economic policies, its ability to represent Taiwan’s democratic values and protect national sovereignty in cross-strait relations.
Over the next four years, Tsai poured her energy into improving the DPP’s cross-strait program, policy design and roster of legislators-at-large, and assembled a team of academic and policy experts for her future administration.
Saturday’s election results represent a long-awaited vindication of her grit and hard work.
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