The TPP’s decline
Following the Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was pleased to see the TPP garner 22 percent of the party vote, double the 11 percent it achieved four years earlier. This was in sharp contrast to the fate of minor parties in the past, which at most won 10 percent before going into decline. Ko thought this meant that the TPP would not fizzle out and would be a third force in the local political arena.
However, Ann Kao (高虹安), who ran and was elected as mayor of Hsinchu City on behalf of the TPP, has been sentenced to seven years and four months in prison on corruption charges and dismissed from office.
Ko himself faces judicial investigation with regard to three major cases that took place during his tenure as Taipei mayor. These have raised doubts about the “squeaky-clean” image that the TPP has sought to cultivate.
The latest public opinion poll published by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed that public support for the TPP has crumbled to 6.2 percent from 16.8 percent last year. If this triggers an effect of young people drifting away from the TPP, it would be the party’s biggest crisis since its founding in 2019.
Many supporters of the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think that if the alliance between the “blue” camp and the “white” TPP continues to split, the “green” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would reap the benefits and remain in power.
The party with the most to fear if the TPP fizzles out is the KMT, because young voters are likely to switch their support to the DPP. Such a scenario would mess up the KMT’s electoral campaign strategy of squeezing the DPP by using the TPP to draw young people’s votes away from it.
The TPP has from the outset been a “one-person party” launched by Ko on the foundation of “online public opinion.” However, his online presence has since been eclipsed by TPP caucus convener Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
Besides, political decisions are based on considerations about public affairs that involve many complicated aspects. Politics is different from general business behavior or show business. It boils down to a “political instinct reality show” where politicians must accept the real test of public opinion.
Ko’s performance during his tenure as Taipei mayor was often among the poorest of his peers, so for residents of Taipei at least, Ko is well past his sell-by date.
Ko has frequently been at odds with the DPP government as he sought to shed his “green” connections to build up a “white” alternative. He thought that his “white new politics” would be a middle way that transcends the “blue” and “green” camps. However, Ko forgot that the TPP has always been a body without a soul, rather like a political scarecrow. The party has never had any defining ideology or core values and has now become a junior partner of the KMT.
It remains to be seen whether the TPP fizzles out, but one thing we can say for sure is that the post-Ko era has already arrived.
Wu Yi-han
Taipei
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