The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) needs to forget about the 2016 presidential race and focus instead on reforming the party and rediscovering the core ideals that made it popular with the Taiwanese public in the past, panelists said yesterday at a forum to discuss the future direction of the DPP.
“While winning the presidency is important, it is impossible for the DPP to return to power if all it thinks about is the elections, because it is now at a disadvantage because the political environment is dominated by a heavy Chinese influence,” political commentator Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒) said at the forum organized by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank.
Chin said the DPP has always been more advanced and progressive than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in terms of its connections to social movements and its espousal of universal values, such as human rights.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
However, the party lost the Jan. 14 presidential election because it lost touch with the public, Chin said, and not because of its stance toward China, as other commentators contend.
Chin said pursuing a strategy of developing closer ties with Beijing should never be on the DPP’s list of priorities.
“Regardless of how hard the DPP tries to appeal to Beijing, it will never defeat the KMT on cross-strait relations because the DPP will never be a ‘second KMT,’” he said.
Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who served in the DPP administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as Mainland Affairs Council chairman and representative to the US, agreed that cross-strait policy was not the reason the DPP lost the election.
If the DPP reaches that conclusion, the party will fall into a trap set by Beijing, Wu said.
“That is exactly what China wants you [the DPP] to think,” he said, adding that the DPP’s resolution on Taiwan’s future is “alive and kicking” and is able to meet any future challenges.
The DPP does not oppose closer engagement with China outright, but it insists that any exchanges should take place in a framework that safeguards Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity. Former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had listed the Strait Forum and the Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone (海西經濟區) off-limits for DPP members, saying that they come with united front implications.
The DPP does not need to re-invent itself, Wu said. It simply needs to be a respectable opposition party and to keep hammering away on the issues it has traditionally cared about, such as the KMT’s ill-gotten party assets, media reform, judicial reform and fair elections.
The DPP should abandon the short-term goal of winning specific elections and devise a long-term vision and strategy, said Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲), president of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Wu Shu-min (吳樹民), president of the pro-independence Taiwan Society, said the DPP needs to be confident in the values it believes in before it can win the public’s trust again.
“Perhaps we — civic organizations — should not be the DPP’s faithful cheerleaders so that the party is forced to carry out reforms and make changes,” Wu said.
‘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 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
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
RSS