Anyone aspiring to become president of this nation, should take stock of mainstream public opinion. This is an obvious step that any would-be president should take before they start trumpeting themselves as the best qualified person for the job.
Bearing this in mind, the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) four presidential aspirants should take the results of a newly-released survey from the Taiwan Thinktank to heart. The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) presidential frontrunner, former chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Based on the answers of 1,064 respondents, the survey showed that 79.5 percent believed that only Taiwanese are entitled to make a decision on the nation's future, while 14.5 percent said the decision should be made jointly by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The survey, released on Tuesday, also showed that 81.9 percent of respondents believed that China has no right to interfere in Taiwan's internal affairs, including the government's ongoing name-change campaign and drive for constitutional reform, while 12.8 percent said China has the right to do so.
For the four DPP presidential contenders vying for the party's nomination, the survey serves as a reminder that they need to stay in line with the party's founding principles and ideals.
For Ma, who has time and again stated unification with China as his eventual goal for the nation, the results should be a wake-up call and seem to suggest he needs to reassess his platform and his "Greater China" mindset if he hopes to succeed in becoming president.
That a Taiwanese identity has been steadily building over the past years is an undeniable fact.
A survey by the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University last December showed that the percentage of respondents who consider themselves "Taiwanese" had increased from 56 percent in 2005 to 60 percent last year.
A more recent poll on the matter conducted by the DPP and released on Tuesday showed that 68 percent of respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese, 16.8 percent identified themselves as Chinese, while 11.7 percent said they were both Taiwanese and Chinese.
All poll results must be taken with a pinch of salt and the accuracy of such polls is a contentious issue. Nonetheless, the various polls all suggest a similar trend: Taiwan consciousness is on the rise and that the ratio of those who believe Taiwan should move toward independence has also steadily increased.
How can Ma -- or whoever the DPP representative turns out to be -- expect to win the support of the electorate if they fail to put their faith in a Taiwan consciousness and reflect what is obviously becoming the mainstream opinion?
How does any presidential hopeful expect to score a victory in next year's presidential election if they stand diametrically opposed to what the vast majority of people believe in?
As academic and pioneer in the contemporary field of leadership studies Warren Bennis once said:"Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery."
All those who aspire to run for the country's top job should ensure that the Taiwanese are not relegated to that periphery.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
RSS