Taipei is holding its mayoral election on Nov. 29. Some leaders of the two main political parties feel that Sean Lien (連勝文) and Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are not really representative of the parties backing them, but they have no way of suppressing them.
This is the mindset of party politics. While these candidacies are unusual, they are not accidental. After all, voters are not all components of the party machine.
However, as far as Lien is concerned, he is a just a political fledgling, albeit one that was born with a silver spoon in its beak. Lien has not managed to rally his party comrades, and the ship seems to be on the verge of sinking.
Lien and Ko are two quite different phenomena.
One comes from a Taiwanese family with strong China connections, a clan that ranks at the top of the party-state hierarchy. Clustered around him are a gaggle of elder and younger figures who are out of favor with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) central leadership, along with party hacks who, seeing that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will soon be a lame duck, are waiting to pick up morsels of influence in the party and government. However, these people are still attached to Ma.
The other is a relative of victims of the 228 Massacre perpetrated by the KMT. He is a politically inexperienced emergency room doctor who is more at home with resuscitation machines than political ones, but he has garnered a broad political response among non-KMT supporters.
The Sean Lien phenomenon is a Taipei phenomenon and a Chinese one. Although the Ko Wen-je phenomenon is taking place in Taipei, it is a Taiwanese phenomenon. Taiwan and Chinese Taipei are not quite the same thing, and when Lien ventures outside Taipei, it is not the same thing at all.
Some people are asking whether Lien is fit for the job at all. However, he says he is not a child of the rich and powerful, but an entrepreneur. Lien has won fame and fortune with all the profit he has made from his investments in China and other places overseas.
Now he wants to present a clean, new image, even suggesting that he may donate his luxury apartment in the elite housing complex known as The Palace to charity. Will he or will he not? You can see the audacity of it now that the KMT is trying to give the sons of the rich and powerful control over every city and county government in north Taiwan.
The Lien family has been building its wealth through three generations, from grandfather Lien Chen-tung (連震東) to father Lien Chan (連戰) to Sean Lien. When did their affluence turn into a problem?
When elections are coming, candidates’ closet doors tend to get thrown open, with robbers digging up old bones and putting them on show for all to see.
If you want to make money, then stick to business and keep out of politics. Since when has politics been about making money?
The Republic of China (ROC) is one place where such anomalies do happen. Could this be why some people are keen to pander to a colonial party and side with it?
The same thing has been happening in the People’s Republic of China, where the party, government and armed forces are all becoming the province of the rich and powerful.
In the past, these were the characteristics of the KMT, and the Chinese Communist Party wanted to put an end to them. However, after ruling China for 65 years, the communists have followed in the KMT’s tracks. These days the two parties are the best of pals. For both of them, tackling corruption is just a judicial means of settling accounts with political rivals, not a matter of political principle.
Sean Lien also differs from Ko in that he had the blessings of former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and is equally favored by Hu’s successor, Xi Jinping (習近平).
Of course, he will draw a clear line between himself and his Chinese backers at election time. Although his father lost two presidential elections in a row in 2000 and 2004, why should the presidency of the “Republic of China” be a big deal for him? We all saw how Lien Chan sauntered around with a smile on his face when paying tribute to China’s leaders and shaking hands with them.
What can an ROC president achieve, anyway? In 2000, Lien Chan came third in the presidential race behind China-born James Soong (宋楚瑜). Having Tainan as his birthplace did not do him much good. In 2004, he lost again when Soong was standing for president and Lien Chan for vice president. In China, though, his Taiwanese origins bring him more favors than Soong gets.
Now the younger Lien has made some headway amid all the opposition to Ma. Will he end up winning or losing? Heaven knows!
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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