The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s failure to win the trust and support of the public through its policies was yesterday identified by the party as its primary reason for losing the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 16.
The report, presented at the weekly meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee, said the party had previously enjoyed strong support, holding the presidency for eight years and holding a majority in the Legislative Yuan for its entire tenure, and up until the nine-in-one elections in 2014, it had party members in charge of most of the municipalities and townships across the nation.
Despite criticism of its Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) leading to a slight drop in legislative seats and presidential votes in the 2012 elections, there was still majority support for the KMT, the report said.
Photo: CNA
However, since 2012, the party’s policies and administrative procedures have gone awry, leading to a series of unpopular decisions, such as the capital gains tax, the hiking of gas and electricity prices and trying to force through the cross-strait service trade accord, which greatly damaging the party’s popularity, it said.
The 2013 death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) just days before his discharge from compulsory military service, and the slew of food safety incidents further damaged the government’s credibility, the report said, adding that high housing prices, a widening wealth gap and the stalling and even falling of wages fueled public anger.
In addition, the inability of the government to gauge the influence of media and Internet forums has cost the party its chance to speak out and clarify its stance on the issues of the day, the report said.
The report added that the party’s cross-strait policies were not distinctive enough compared with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), adding that it was unable to find consensus within the party on many issues, which disappointed supporters, and that it could not get through to young people.
In terms of cross-strait policies, while the DPP gained traction by backing away from its pro-Taiwan independence stance and moving toward the “status quo,” the KMT lost ground as its policies were made out to be pandering to China and not standing up for Taiwan’s sovereignty, the report said.
The party’s ineffectual distribution of the benefits of trade with China to the public also counted against it, the report said, adding that the Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) incident was the last straw.
Chou, a Taiwanese K-pop singer, was allegedly forced by her South Korean management to apologize for carrying a Republic of China (ROC) flag and to say: “There is only ‘one China’... I have always felt proud of being Chinese” in a video uploaded to YouTube the night before the election.
Her public shaming allegedly led to support for the DPP.
“The KMT is facing far more difficult challenges than when it first lost the presidential elections in 2000, and we must face the reality that we have lost public support,” the report said.
The party must recognize the necessity of handing over the reins of power to newer generations to keep up with the times, and in the future, it needs to endeavor to defend the public’s interests, step up its presence on the Internet, facilitate communication with the public, change its party structure, allow more young people to have a say in party affairs and introduce internal reforms, the report said.
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