Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for Taipei mayor Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said he hoped his new campaign strategy would change the country’s traditional party-focused election culture in next week’s five-special municipality elections.
The public is so “sick and tired of the infighting between the blue and green” camps that they want change and they want to be their own master and make their own decisions, Su said, calling this development the “third wave” of democratic reform.
“Those candidates who have a good track record will win and those who don’t will have to go,” he said.
In the US, for example, the fate of US President Barack Obama’s party in the midterm elections showed that Americans were fully aware that they were the real masters of their country, Su said during a live interview on Yam Web TV.
Taiwan saw the “first wave” of the democratic movement about 30 years ago, when the country was under one-party rule and people began to demand political liberation much like Burmese and Chinese dissidents are doing today, Su said.
Political liberation led to an explosion of political parties and at the beginning of party politics, -competition between the two main parties resulted in ugly infighting, he said.
As Taiwan becomes more democratic, Su said an increasing number of Taiwanese wanted politicians to know that they did not blindly favor any political party and that they could make their own judgment as to the direction the country should go.
Change of government as a phenomenon is also increasing, he said.
While the electoral structure of Taipei City is traditionally dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Su said he hoped this would change next week.
“Let elections return to their original meaning of choosing someone who is qualified for the job,” he said.
While Su’s KMT opponent, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), has vowed to “annihilate” his enemy in this battle, Su said he did not want to “annihilate” anybody and that he only wanted to serve the people.
Su urged voters to elect someone who is bold and resolute, someone who can deliver on his promises, who is effective and who does not promote confrontation.
“Elections are not gambling and voters are not the bargaining chips of politicians,” Su said.
On his new campaign strategy, Su said the core concept was to put Taipei residents foremost in his mind. By doing so, his policy platform was aimed at addressing their problems, he said.
Su vowed to make the capital city a fun and interesting place to be, a place mixing the old and new as well as convenience and vitality.
“It might not be the first in some world rankings, but I guarantee you it will be unique and Taipei will surpass itself,” he said.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT