The media are accustomed to talking about how support for the pan-blue camp surpasses that for the pan-green camp in Taipei, but when I lived in the city, there was never any talk about “blue” or “green.”
Instead, there were only the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and independent politicians.
When independent Henry Kao (高玉樹) was mayor of Taipei, serving for a second term in the mid-1960s, he was so popular that the KMT strategically upgraded Taipei City so the mayorship was no longer an elective post and invited Kao to join the KMT government.
Once the system was changed, all successive appointed mayors were members of the KMT.
When elections for the position were reinstated in 1994, the KMT had incumbent Taipei mayor Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲) run for the party.
However, Mainlanders who disliked then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) supported the candidacy of the New Party’s Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), thus splitting the vote and allowing Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party to win.
During his term in office, Chen’s public approval rating hit a high of nearly 80 percent.
Despite his popularity, he lost unexpectedly in his re-election bid to the KMT’s candidate, current President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Since then, Taipei — which used to lead the way in opposing the KMT dictatorship — has been described as a stronghold for the pan-blues and Sinicization and the belief grew that a Taiwanese cannot win the mayorship.
Toward the end of Ma’s second mayoral term, speculation was rife over who would be his successor.
An old friend of current Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) made the cocksure prediction that Wu would succeed Ma. That showed a lack of understanding of the KMT.
I said then that the KMT would nominate neither Wu nor any other Taiwanese.
The reason is simple. Just look at the composition of the Taipei electorate: It has a higher percentage of Mainlanders, civil servants and teachers, who form the bulwark of KMT support.
Mainlanders view Taipei as their city and if the KMT were to select Wu or another Taiwanese, Mainlanders would support another candidate that came from their own ranks.
This would benefit the DPP and nobody in the KMT would dare take the responsibility for that.
Taipei has a lot of resources and the education, income and independence of voters mean their demands on the government are higher than in other areas.
This is why voters have been able to look beyond party affiliation and elect leaders based on their intelligence and abilities.
It is also the reason why Kao was able to defeat the KMT’s candidates.
However, as the view that the pan-blues enjoy stronger support than the pan-greens in Taipei took hold, local residents seem to have forgotten their rights, interests and autonomy.
They are now only interested in protecting their own party and ethnic group: The result is Taipei’s political and urban development is in a mess.
All that is left is bias, waste and special privilege — and there is nothing to be proud of anymore.
Replacing people who are doing a good job and keeping those who do not in office is a result of party politics and ethnic prejudice.
This is a deplorable habit that is not worthy of Taipei.
James Wang is a journalist based in Washington.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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