Sun, Dec 08, 2002 page8

• Small surprises and easy victories

  • By Christian Schafferer
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  The mayoral election results were a foregone conclusion in Taipei and a small surprise in Kaohsiung.

  In the capital, Ma Ying-jeou's(馬英九) strategy was not to talk too much about specific future policies nor go into details of what has been achieved during his term. Instead, he tried to give the voters the impression that there are many problems but there is no need to worry because there is still Ma, who cares about the people.

  His campaign ads in Taiwan's media, for instance, frequently focused on the issue of rising unemployment and the lack of unity among the electorate due to the polarization of the populace between the blue and green camps, urging the electorate to be united and support him. In his campaign speech on election eve, Ma spent most of his time telling the audience that we all work hard everyday and that life sometimes is difficult but we still have Ma to rely on, giving the electorate once again the impression of a good brother who will always be here if help is needed.

  Ma relied on his charisma whereas his opponent, Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), relied on history and on offering "beef" -- more social welfare to the residents of Taipei. His campaign team, for instance, placed a series of ads in Taiwan's mass media promising every unemployed person between 35 and 50 years of age a monthly subsidy of NT$10,000 for the period of one year, and every single mother with a child under 12 years of age a monthly stipend of NT$5,000.

  Apart from social welfare policies, history was again a key element in the DPP's mayoral campaign strategy. In his campaign speeches and televised ads, Lee once again stressed his suffering during the white terror that lasted until the early 1990s. Televised ads tried to remind the voters of the dark times and of the fact that Lee Ying-yuan was blacklisted by the KMT government for his involvement in anti-KMT activities.

  A group of former schoolmates also put ads in mass-circulating daily newspapers showing a large photo of Ma and claiming that he was a spy for the KMT government while studying in the US. The group strongly criticized Ma for being on the side of the dictator during the most crucial period of time in Taiwan's history of democratic development.

  Nevertheless, the electorate seemed to care little about Ma's alleged spying activities. It may be important for the people of Taiwan to discuss their history and the involvement of current politicians in the suffering of political opponents during the reign of white terror, but election campaigns are no longer the right place to talk about history. People have heard too much of such stories during the last 10 years and are no longer willing to talk about the old times.

  The DPP's campaign strategy in the Taipei race changed compared with previous elections in the sense that Lee campaign team refrained from relying on traditional campaign methods such as large street rallies.

  There maybe various reasons for this, but one of the key ones is simply that voters do not know why they should join such rallies. The support of civil groups for the DPP seems to be vanishing, especially after the farmer's and fishermen's demonstration of Nov. 23 when over 100,000 people took to the streets of Taipei.

  Numerous former civil groups that supported the DPP in the past turned out this time urging the electorate not to vote for DPP candidates. Full-page ads in mass-circulating newspapers requesting the voters not to vote green were common. This all made Ma Ying-jeou's election victory a foregone conclusion.

  In Kaohsiung,the election victory of DPP candidate Frank Hsieh was more of a surprise given the fact that claims of Hsieh's involvement in the Zanadau scandal seemed to do him serious harm. Apart from the scandal, the public in general feels discontent with current government economic policies. Taiwan's economy has been challenged by a recession and record unemployment. GDP has shrunk considerably throughout the last years while the nation's economists speak of the steepest GDP decline since the oil crisis of the 1970s. Much blame for the poor economy had been pinned on the DPP government.

  In addition, the farmer's and fishermen's demonstration and the subsequent resignation of key government members once again conveyed the message of an inefficient government.

  Perhaps dissatisfied voters did not go to the polls instead of voting for the KMT. With election turnout averaging 71 percent, the Kaohsiung election had the lowest turnout ever.

  But whatever the turnout, the KMT candidate lost the election, leaving James Soong (宋楚瑜) standing in the rain after his ridiculous performance in Taipei, when he kneeled down begging for votes in support of Ma.

  As to the Taipei city council election, it is interesting to note that the KMT for the first time practiced the forced vote distribution system. In previous elections, it had been the party's strategy to support those candidates with higher popularity ratings in opinion surveys and to neglect the others. The KMT obviously has learned from its previous election defeats. Only one of the 21 KMT candidates in Taipei was not elected.

  Christian Schafferer is an assistant professor in the department of international trade at the Overseas Chinese Institute of Technology.
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