With Taiwan’s presidential election fast approaching, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) released a campaign advertisement for its presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴). The ad, on the theme of “On the Road,” has been viewed and “liked” by a huge number of people across various social media platforms.
The video starts with Lai and outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) traveling in a car, with Tsai at the wheel, talking about their cooperation in government over the past few years. After a while the car stops, Tsai gets out and in steps Hsiao, as Lai takes the wheel. After Tsai bids them farewell, Lai and Hsiao drive off, while talking about what direction they should take from now on.
In an atmosphere of strictly one-or-the-other ideologies generating various kinds of political hate speech, the campaign video presents a contrasting ambience. The lighting, composition and imagery are all gentle, as is the tone of the conversations, in which the main points are made.
“Recruit outstanding talents from various fields to join the legislature,” “do not be careless about choosing a deputy,” “the most important thing is to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy.” “We will follow the path of democracy forever.” These excerpts from the dialogue all typify the DPP’s consistent style of governance.
A couple of days ago I had a conversation with an elder figure in the field of politics. Regarding the prospects for Taiwan’s presidential election during the final countdown to election day, he was of the opinion that Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) lack of core principles might cause voters who were originally inclined to vote for him to cast their ballots for the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the “green” DPP instead. He said that the way those votes go will be the key factor that decides which of those two parties wins the elections. He also said that some unexpected incident might cause the votes to go one way or another.
That might be true, but I would also say that we must not overlook the trends among Taiwan’s swing voters. At the same time, among those voters who are defined as “deep blue” or “deep green,” the key question is whether they can exercise independent critical thinking in choosing how to cast their votes, and especially whether the fans of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who stood unsuccessfully as the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2020, could realize how they have been turned into electoral tools by the KMT.
Another statement made in the DPP ad is: “If you go abroad, you will see how far ahead Taiwan really is among countries.”
Taiwan is also a real model of democracy for the world’s ethnic Chinese. This country has plenty of room for diversity and it strives for peace, democracy and progress. That is something that cannot be achieved by the Chinese Communist Party, which worships dictators and autocrats, and has often engaged in violent internal struggles.
Knight Chang is a political worker and doctor of education.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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