Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) last month reiterated that he is willing to participate in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, responding: “Yes, I do” when asked in a TV interview on May 17.
Han has only been Kaohsiung mayor for six months, and the machinery of the city government is still unclear as to what his program for office entails and the city has not embarked on any major new development projects in this time. For Han to rashly throw his hat into the primary is inappropriate.
Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference between Han’s “yes, I do” and former US president Barack Obama, who campaigned on the slogan “Yes We Can” in 2008.
Speeches by Obama drew upon topics including US “articles of faith,” slavery, the “frontier spirit” and social justice to demonstrate what could be achieved through the collective will of the American people.
In contrast, Han simply emphasizes his own ideas, which is different from Obama’s focus on the interests of the nation and the American people.
Crucially, Han has only been in office for half a year and his presidential bid is a sign of his opportunism. He should focus all his energy on running the Kaohsiung City Government.
All politicians, regardless of political affiliation and ideology, are fond of political slogans and tub-thumping speeches — both while campaigning and afterward — to attract public and media attention. Catchy slogans are not just a form of self-promotion, they also connect the emotions of voters with the politics of the candidate or office holder. For this reason, politicians generally favor pithy, punchy slogans.
Han excels at verbal messaging. Perhaps it is relatively easy for him to think up such “gems of wisdom,” but he should exercise more caution over the promises he made to those who lent him their vote in addition to the ethical standards expected of all politicians.
Han might not become the KMT’s presidential candidate, but he is already setting an example for how not to do politics in Taiwan, with his actions indicating that it is okay for county commissioners and mayors to toss aside their promises to voters and eye bigger prizes should the opportunity arise.
Since Taiwan’s first directly elected president in 1996, the consensus among voters is that they should elect a person who is part of Taiwan.
A president should come under the close scrutiny of voters regardless of which side of the political divide they identify with.
Han has not only stayed aloof from Taiwan’s political circles for too long, his performance in the city council has been poor lately and he needs to put more effort into understanding how to run his Kaohsiung administration, not to mention his understanding of the solemn position of representing the nation as its president.
Time will tell, but Han might elope from his electoral pact with Kaohsiung residents. His performance in office to date shows that the political class, in particular opportunistic politicians such as Han, still have a lot to learn.
Ray Song is a graduate of the Institute of Strategic and International Affairs at National Chung Cheng University.
Translated by Edward Jones
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