Next year’s presidential election is expected to be competitive and exciting. The campaign began when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) entered the preliminary stage.
As candidates jockey for position amid talk about an alliance between Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a three-way race seems to be crystallizing.
There are advantages and shortcomings to each of the three potential presidential tickets, but perhaps the biggest potential threat to the development of Taiwan’s constitutional democracy is Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the KMT’s candidate, and the wave of populism he has set off. These developments are something that the government and academics should pay close attention to.
Populism is not the same thing as democracy. In political science, “democracy” is a systemic conflict resolution mechanism. People might have different opinions or demands, but when a confrontation or conflict arises, they fall back on tolerance to address it and resolve it in accordance with the law.
Populism, on the other hand, has the following characteristics: opposition to representative politics and an admiration for people power; evaluating political issues based on the biased views of the “we-group”; opposing elitism and rejecting pluralism (rejecting differing opinions, refusing to communicate); lacking core values and being self-contradictory and fickle; using excessive simplifications and exaggerated opinions as means of mobilization; claiming to represent all people while demonstrating an almost religious fervor; and often creating a cult worship of the populist leader.
It is because of these characteristics that when populism grows, emotion replaces reason, uniformity replaces diversity, street protests replace debate and a loud minority decides the future of the silent majority. All these factors stifle and disrupt the normal development of a constitutional democracy.
As Taiwan is about to enter its 33rd year as a democracy, Han’s rise is shocking and leaves many at a loss for words.
Relying on an emotional appeal, he is connecting to grassroots supporters using vivid, everyday language, simple and casual dress, and a portrayal of himself as someone sharing the hardships of daily life with the common man. He is building grand, bold dreams with a straightforward and no-nonsense style, telling stories of how he turned his life around and touting new and unconventional political views.
In combination with his charisma, this has helped him stir up a “Han wave” of support in Kaohsiung that has spread across Taiwan.
Han’s election as mayor of Kaohsiung instilled in many pan-blue supporters a firm belief that he would be the one to salvage the KMT, thus laying the foundation for the Han idolatry that has created an almost religious worship of him among the “Han fans.”
Han fans, like devout believers, began to treat everything he said and did as the signs of an oracle. Any external criticism or well-intended suggestion was treated as a vicious attack and incited immediate encirclement by the obsessed Han fans, who engaged in indiscriminate crowdsourcing of information on that person on the Internet.
In this atmosphere, the tolerance and compromise needed to accommodate the differing opinions offered by a democratic society have all but evaporated.
Moreover, Han started dreaming about a presidential run before having even served three full months as Kaohsiung mayor. He ignored his pledges to complete his mayoral term and to do a good job of it, and when it came to appointments, he paid too much attention to relations and contacts and not enough attention to expertise and ability.
He has been inattentive and taken a perfunctory and even disdainful attitude to running the city and to question-and-answer sessions at the city council. In addition to interfering with city policy implementation, his wife had built an illegal luxury home on farmland.
Han’s own morals do not stand up to scrutiny as has been revealed over and again, and his bid for the presidency has lost all legitimacy.
As if they were bewitched, the Han fans continue to support him regardless of everything, and following a series of campaign rallies, they got him appointed as the KMT’s presidential candidate.
This result was seen as unfair and a humiliation of Gou and Wang, which created an opportunity for Ko to enter into an alliance with the two and very possibly introducing a third ticket into the presidential election.
The KMT is ready to split at any moment, and the loud calls for unity are just a last attempt by the party to convince itself and others that a division does not exist.
Observers might not want to know too much about internal KMT power struggles and its dumping of party members, but the populist fever brought on by the Han wave has many worried about the future of Taiwan’s constitutional democracy.
First, led by their divine Han, the emotional and impulsive Han fans are putting an end to reason and the tolerance of differing opinions that exist in a democratic society, and this is destroying the foundation of our constitutional democracy.
Second, authority based on the “divine wisdom” of Han’s charisma might replace legal authority based on experience, which is a core value that is indispensable to democratic systems and constitutional order.
Furthermore, Nazi-style Han fan militant groups would thoroughly overturn the principle of majority decision that is part and parcel of representative politics, and Internet and street demonstrations would replace voting on the legislative floor and become the decisive power that informs the direction of national policy.
Finally, the resources of power would be concentrated in the hands of a small group of people, and the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances would be abandoned like a pair of worn-out shoes as oligarchy puts an end to democratic politics.
Should we take measures to prevent these potentially serious consequences? That will all be decided by the wisdom of Taiwan’s voters in next year’s election.
Thomas Ho is professor and director of the Department of Future Studies and LOHAS Industry at Fo Guang University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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