The “blue-white” alliance farce continues. Yesterday evening, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, was still waiting on a definitive answer from Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) about whether he intended to proceed with the coalition, with only 48 more hours to go before the registration window closes.
Do the KMT and Ko think this is some kind of reality TV show, where voters are kept at the edge of their seats until the final reveal? Taiwan has a vibrant democracy, but this is getting beyond daft: Voters are hungry to understand policy platforms, not witness lovers’ tiffs on a national stage.
Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, remains in pole position, but his poll ratings are slipping. The opposition parties’ suggestion that this translates into 60 percent of the electorate desiring change is a disingenuous misinterpretation of the data. Nevertheless a substantial portion of the electorate would like to see the DPP out of government after two terms in power.
The KMT leadership and Ko are letting these voters down by allowing themselves to be embroiled in this farce. Having come to an agreement with Hou, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Wednesday last week, Ko subsequently reneged on its terms, saying he had been tricked by the KMT members. This alone should set alarm bells ringing regarding Ko’s suitability for high office.
To a certain degree, there is little sense in blaming the hapless, compliant Hou, who has shown himself to be a competent local government head, but easily led by the big beasts in the KMT. In some circles, Chu has a reputation of being something of a strategic genius. Considering how he bungled the 2016 presidential election campaign and is messing up this one, including his handling of the closed-door nominee selection process and the alliance negotiations, it is difficult to see how he earned this reputation.
Ma holds no official position within the party, aside from his party membership and grandee status. However, he still commands considerable influence within the party, as he demonstrated when he bulldozed his way into the coalition negotiations, orchestrating a shotgun marriage that swiftly fell apart when Ko realized he was being taken for a ride.
The manner in which Ma convinced Ko to accept the terms of the agreement, and the actions of certain members within his circle, including their trips to Beijing just before last week’s meeting, have given rise to suspicions that Ma had convinced Ko to comply by passing on a message from Beijing. Voters might want to consider whether they would be in safe hands with a compliant Hou doing the bidding of the Beijing-backed KMT grandees or an ill-prepared, congenitally unsuitable Ko to handle the Chinese Communist Party in cross-strait relations.
Meanwhile, Lai on Monday officially named former representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) as his running mate. Hsiao has been an effective envoy to the US who has forged good relations while in Washington, and would bring this to the role if elected as vice president, complementing Lai’s relative lack of experience in foreign relations.
Lai is presently leading the polls. A considerable proportion of the electorate would like to see somebody else in the Presidential Office, but Hou, Ko, Chu and Ma are clearly not taking voters seriously. Undecided voters have seen how the different prospective candidates have disported themselves during the campaign and, based on this, are likely to make up their minds regarding who they would like to have as their national leader.
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