While opinion polls predicted a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) loss in Saturday's presidential election, the extent of its defeat came as a surprise to some, especially in the south, traditionally considered a DPP stronghold.
Speaking on the loss of support in the south, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that although DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) performed well as the city's mayor, it may have been regarded as irrelevant and the party might not have packaged Hsieh's achievements very well.
Hsieh garnered over 48 percent of the votes in Kaohsiung City, while his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: CNA
The DPP ticket won in only five counties: Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
Despite Ma's not-so-memorable achievements during his stint as Taipei mayor, analysts said Ma's good looks and charisma made him immune to criticism.
In fact, since taking office in December 1998, not a single opinion poll -- including those conducted by private groups as well as the city government -- has ever put Ma in a negative light.
In Saturday's election, Ma collected a record high number of votes since the first direct presidential election in 1996. Ma secured 58.45 percent of the ballots, or over 7.5 million, with the DPP ticket garnering 41.55 percent, or about 5.4 million.
At an election-eve rally in Taipei City, Hsieh could not help but complain that the public has adopted a "double standard" where Ma is concerned.
"I wonder whether the public would forgive President Chen [Shui-bian (
Hsieh has accused Ma of holding a US green card since 1977, while Ma has said his green card was automatically invalidated in 1985 when he applied for a visa to travel to the US.
Ku Chung-hwa (
"We call it the charisma phenomenon -- a form of idolatry," he said.
Political analyst Antonio Chiang (江春男), a former Taipei Times editor-in-chief, agreed, saying that although Hsieh was more capable, eloquent and smarter than Ma, most Taiwanese tend to identify more with someone who is less articulate and more simple.
"It was Ma's success, not the KMT's," he said. "It was President Chen who defeated the DPP. It was an impossible task under the circumstances no matter how hard Hsieh tried."
In addition to personal charisma, Chiang said Ma successfully created the image that he was connected with Taiwan, an issue his predecessors avoided.
"No matter how true his intention was, he deserves some credit for moving away from China and toward Taiwan," Chiang said.
"It was meaningful to have the first [democratically elected] China-born president in Taiwan," he said.
Since the loss on Saturday, party heavyweights have been keeping a low profile, but most agree that the DPP must take a good look at itself and finger-pointing is rife.
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was the first to criticize Hsieh, saying that he had distanced himself from President Chen, making her and the president unable to help in the campaign as much as they had hoped.
Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chih-hung (
Some targeted former secretary-general of the Ministry of Education Chuang Kuo-rong (莊國榮) for his derogatory remarks about Ma's late father as well as Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝), who had apologized for Chuang's conduct.
Tsai Chia-hung (蔡佳泓), an associate research fellow at National Chengchi University's Election Study Center, said that it was a myth that the south has traditionally been the stronghold of the DPP, at least not in the 2000 presidential election.
Statistics showed that except for Tainan County, the KMT ticket of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and the independent ticket of James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄) together garnered more votes in Kaohsiung County, Kaohsiung City, Tainan City and Pingtung County than thee DPP ticket.
In the 2004 presidential election, the ratio between DPP and KMT tickets in the south changed from 4 to 5 to 5 to 4 and in Tainan County from 4 to 5 to 6 to 3.
One of the reasons that the south is growing more DPP friendly is that residents there are worse-off than their northern counterparts so they depend more on government subsidies and therefore tend to support those who give them , Tsai said.
Tsai said Saturday's election also proved that the identity card was simply not enough to win this year's election.
The KMT not only tackled the identity issue head on but also focused on improving the economy, stoking public dissatisfaction with the current administration's economic policy, he said.
Compounding the problem was the negative coverage by some KMT-friendly media outlets, Tsai said. It drove away younger voters who consume such media.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS