Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) recently reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart,” a remark that pro-Taiwan supporters found dubious or even held in disdain.
The “deep green” faction is a pro-indigenous force that promotes Taiwanese sovereignty by putting Taiwan’s interests first. That Ko had the audacity to make a series of “anti-indigenous” moves, such as saying the “two sides of the Strait are one family,” condemning the idea of countering China and safeguarding Taiwan, proposing to revive plans of a cross-strait service trade agreement with China and partnering with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for his own political interests, have shown that he is not as “deep green” as he claims to be, for these were all intolerable actions in the eyes of pro-Taiwan supporters.
There is no way Ko is “deep green” at heart, and his comments are no more than a ploy to save his flagging polling numbers and campaign.
While Ko said the he hates the KMT, but hates the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) even more only a while ago, his claim to be “deep green” at heart has only proven him to be either schizophrenic or a political flip-flopper. If Ko considers himself “deep green,” why would he vow to transcend the KMT and DPP, establish the Taiwan People’s Party and run for president in the first place? It would have saved him a lot of trouble if he had just joined the DPP and supported Vice President William Lai (賴清德).
Ko said that he would follow in President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) footsteps regarding the military and diplomacy. Nevertheless, he has always claimed that Taiwan should maintain positive and “equidistant” ties with the US and China, condemned the US’ military arms deal as “Taiwan paying out of its own pocket for flat drill bits,” and compared Taiwan to “merchandise on the shelf” to describe the Taiwan-US relationship.
Different ludicrous remarks have always echoed the ideologies of pro-China supporters, which are in sharp contrast to Tsai’s policies and stances. Ko would be mistaken if he thinks the public could be so easily duped by his words. By messing up the “blue-white alliance,” Ko is now reverting back to “deep green” supporters to make up for his lost support from the pan-blue camp. Such opportunistic conduct only paints him as a shameful and sordid politician.
Lai Yen-cheng is a graduate student at National Chiao Tung University.
Translated by Rita Wang
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