Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidates for the Nov. 24 local elections have said that they would close ranks around President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), even as they acknowledged that opposition to pension reforms has galvanized pan-blue camp voters.
The pension cuts for public-school teachers and civil servants, which are scheduled to take effect on July 1, have raised concerns among DPP members that a fresh round of high-profile clashes by lawmakers could energize the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), sources said.
The new pension schemes and the Ministry of Education’s April decision to not approve the appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as National Taiwan University president have sparked a backlash from the KMT, DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said last month, adding that the resultant confrontation between reform and anti-reform forces would take center stage in the run-up to the elections.
“DPP members need to understand, we must be prepared to reform even at the cost of political power, which is better than doing nothing because we are scared of reforms,” Hung said.
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Sunday said that polls showed the KMT voter base consolidating in support of KMT mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中).
“I will firmly support the reforms of the Tsai administration, but I will not give up on these votes on account of pension reforms,” he said.
Yao served seven years as an administrator in various government positions and considers many civil servants personal friends, so he would explain the government’s policy to the city’s civil servants, he added.
DPP Tainan mayoral candidate Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that pension reforms have proved highly controversial and poses a daunting challenge to his campaign.
Even in the deep-green regions of Tainan, Chiayi and Kaohsiung, candidates have had to sit through the complaints of constituents and listen as they vent their frustration before patiently and rationally explaining the issue to win them over, he said.
“No matter how reasonable pension cuts are in light of fiscal realities, people tend to lose their temper when they find out at the bank that their savings are less than they thought, even by just a few dozen New Taiwan dollars,” he said.
He said he had met a retired teacher on the campaign trail who complained that his monthly pension is to fall from about NT$65,000 to NT$50,000 after the reforms.
“As a candidate, I cannot tell him that NT$50,000 a month is not a trivial sum. So I have to let them finish complaining and then make my apologies,” he said.
Pension reform is necessary as a matter of fairness to the nation’s next generations and to maintain the state’s fiscal health, DPP Hsinchu County commissioner candidate Cheng Chao-fang (鄭朝方) said.
The DPP forging ahead with pension reform in July despite the looming elections should demonstrate the urgency of the reforms, he said.
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