The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential campaign team was a bit confused at first about how to position and promote DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who has been described as an “unorthodox” politician by many.
It would be difficult for the party’s traditional supporters, particularly those in rural areas, to relate to the cool and collected intellectual, who boasts little political experience and cannot even speak fluent Taiwanese, most team members thought.
It turned out that Tsai’s multifaceted identity and character became a campaign team’s dream as Tsai’s popularity has soared in the past few months.
Photo: Li Jung-ping, Taipei Times
As the first female presidential candidate in Taiwan history, the DPP campaign made “Taiwan’s first female president” the main slogan of the second phase of the campaign, following the “Taiwan NEXT” slogan in the initial stage, and it became an immediate hit with supporters.
At every rally, speakers highlighted that there have been more than 60 female leaders in the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigureardottir, which shows democratic development in those countries.
Meanwhile, Tsai also listed former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model.
“The slogan is in line with the DPP’s long-time advocacy of gender equality, and our opponents cannot copy that,” Tsai’s campaign spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said, referring to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) alleged plagiarism of Tsai’s platform during the campaign.
Tsai also made a distinction between men and women to supporters, saying that women usually stress harmony and communication more and are more perseverant and less confrontational.
The 55-year-old’s background has enabled her to reach out to voters of different regions, ethnicities and languages.
Born in Pingtung County and spending most of her adult life in Taipei, Tsai has a Hakka father and a Taiwanese mother, and her grandmother is a Paiwan Aborigine.
People in southern Taiwan, the DPP’s stronghold, accepted her as one of their own as they did with former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), giving Tsai a massive welcome during her recent 11-day 500km campaign trip on the west coast.
In campaign stops at Aboriginal townships, she said she always pride herself on her Aboriginal ancestry and pledged to apologize to Aborigines for the country’s past discrimination and misconduct if she is elected in January.
While Aborigines represent only about 2 percent of the total population, former Taitung County commissioner Chen Chien-nian (陳建年), an Aborigine, said recently that DPP Aboriginal representatives had noticed a shift in the political leanings of their tribes and “the tide is turning.”
Voters in Hakka constituencies in Miaoli, Hsinchu and Taoyuan, which traditionally favored the KMT, seemed to be able to relate to Tsai, shouting “Hakka girl for president” as she spoke during her visit.
Hakkas, which make up 18.1 percent of the nation’s 23 million nationals, or 4.2 million people, are the second-largest ethnic group in Taiwan behind the Hoklo people.
Tsai’s support rate among female Hakka voters appears to have increased a lot, said Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), a DPP legislative candidate in Miaoli.
The DPP is hoping that it will make progress in securing votes from women, Hakkas and Aborigines — all the DPP’s weak areas in past elections.
However, it was more than Tsai’s personal background that boosted her popularity. Her unique character also played a major role.
When some supporters and media expressed doubt over Tsai’s ability to run an effective campaign due to her differences — from her inability to speak fluent Taiwanese and Hakka and her soft-spokenness to her moderate approach — with past DPP candidates, Wu Nai-ren (吳乃仁), Tsai’s campaign manager, seemed at ease.
The DPP is running a completely different campaign this time, based on Tsai’s uniqueness and characteristics, he said.
Unlike Chen Shui-bian and other DPP heavyweights, Tsai does not try to excite the crowds with loud speeches or radical initiatives.
“She does not try to put a smile on your face or make you emotional with her speech. She likes to make you think about what she says. And she appears to be able to calm people down,” Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟), director of DPP’s poll center, said on the sidelines of a recent rally.
Chen described Tsai as having a “wider combat radius” than Chen Shui-bian, saying that “voters either love or hate Chen, but even if they dislike Tsai, they don’t hate her.”
The subtle difference could make a lot of difference at the ballot box, he said.
The DPP chairperson has always been moderate in the way she speaks and treats people; and more importantly in her China policy, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
“She does not like negative campaigning or waging wars of words with her opponents. She pays attention to every detail and is very pragmatic,” he said.
The approach and her “urban, intellectual feel” is why Tsai is able to appeal to the swing voters, who stress stability over anything else, and why he supported Tsai and agreed to join her team, he added.
Tsai may not be a seasoned politician, but she was not “inexperienced,” Chen Chi-mai said, because Tsai served as Taiwan’s representative in WTO negotiations in the early 2000s and as chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top China policymaking body.
“This expertise on the economy and China policy is one of Tsai’s best assets and we believe that will convince voters she is going to be an outstanding leader for this country,” he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS