TAIPEI, Taiwan--President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won 58% of the vote. Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won 57% of the vote. On May 18th, she became the 12th-term Chairperson of the DPP. On May 20th, he was inaugurated as the 12th-term President of Taiwan. Two peas in a pod? Hardly.
Let me start with the one I prefer out of the pair. A couple days before the DPP chair election, I attended a press conference for Tsai held by some young members of the DPP. I was happy to support her for the simple reason that her opponent was Koo Kwan-min (辜寬敏). I was indifferent to him until he made some rather offensive comments.
He said that the job of turning the DPP around should not be left up to unmarried woman, an insult to Tsai on 2 fronts. This was not the first time that he has made such remarks. In a reference to former Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), he had said that running the country was not for people in skirts. Sure, he comes from a different era, as the man is in his 80s. But if he really feels that way, then he should be running to lead a democratic party, not the Democratic Progressive Party.
This was my 2nd time seeing Tsai in person. The 1st was during my college days when she made a trip to the US as Chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council. She spoke on cross-strait relations, first in English and then in Chinese. At the very beginning, she apologized for not being able to speak in Taiwanese, saying that she grew up in Taipei. It is a symbolic step as the DPP embarks on taking the middle road and widening its appeal that she is really the first chairperson who does not use Taiwanese at all.
This time, I made notes during her speech at the press conference (she even borrowed notebook paper from me). She was able to summarize just exactly why politics in Taiwan is so important to so many people. She mentioned that we live in a unique political environment due to our international status and that the nation’s future is a complicated one that requires constantly thinking and reacting strategically. It is also the responsibility of all Taiwanese people, and the youth in particular cannot afford to be ambivalent to Taiwan’s future. She also said that 20 years ago, people were protesting in the streets. Others were scared of politics. Now, members of the younger generation are sitting here and unafraid. Tsai ended by saying that while she is comforted by young people’s involvement, she also feels the pressure from those of us sitting one row behind her.
During the Q&A session, one reporter asked: now that young people have endorsed you, what are you going to give them in return? Tsai responded by saying that she would consider appointing a young deputy chairperson (she has yet to do so). She went on: What kind of party will I give them? I will give them a clean party, one that is cooperative and welcoming, one that includes women and rational debate, one that is aggressive on Taiwan’s democracy, and a party that respects all groups of people.
She won the chair election by a large margin, but it wasn’t always supposed to be that way. Acting chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) had first proposed to hold negotiations for the position. His reasoning was that bitter campaigning would cause further damage to the party after its defeat in the presidential election. I just could not understand this. The party that took to the streets to ask for direct elections of the presidency should, naturally, hold one for its own leader. In the end, though it wasn’t pretty at times, the DPP contest was fair and square.
Only a few days after President Ma’s victory, the notoriously-speculative media predicted that Tsai could run against Ma when he is up for re-election in 2012. It’s obviously too early to tell, but she may well have to win the Taipei mayorship in 2010. As if it were an unwritten stepping-stone, all of the directly-elected Presidents (Lee, Chen and Ma) have once served as mayor of the capital.
But first, Tsai will have to deal with mayoral elections in several counties and townships at the end of 2009, which will serve as a big test during her 2-year term. While she has already said that she can’t promise a home run, she has promised at least a single. If the DPP doesn’t do well in those elections, by tradition Tsai will very likely have to step down. And we’ll have to endure another bowing session by party leaders. Unfortunately, we’ve seen enough of those during the past 8 years.
Let me start with the one I prefer out of the pair. A couple days before the DPP chair election, I attended a press conference for Tsai held by some young members of the DPP. I was happy to support her for the simple reason that her opponent was Koo Kwan-min (辜寬敏). I was indifferent to him until he made some rather offensive comments.
He said that the job of turning the DPP around should not be left up to unmarried woman, an insult to Tsai on 2 fronts. This was not the first time that he has made such remarks. In a reference to former Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), he had said that running the country was not for people in skirts. Sure, he comes from a different era, as the man is in his 80s. But if he really feels that way, then he should be running to lead a democratic party, not the Democratic Progressive Party.
This was my 2nd time seeing Tsai in person. The 1st was during my college days when she made a trip to the US as Chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council. She spoke on cross-strait relations, first in English and then in Chinese. At the very beginning, she apologized for not being able to speak in Taiwanese, saying that she grew up in Taipei. It is a symbolic step as the DPP embarks on taking the middle road and widening its appeal that she is really the first chairperson who does not use Taiwanese at all.
This time, I made notes during her speech at the press conference (she even borrowed notebook paper from me). She was able to summarize just exactly why politics in Taiwan is so important to so many people. She mentioned that we live in a unique political environment due to our international status and that the nation’s future is a complicated one that requires constantly thinking and reacting strategically. It is also the responsibility of all Taiwanese people, and the youth in particular cannot afford to be ambivalent to Taiwan’s future. She also said that 20 years ago, people were protesting in the streets. Others were scared of politics. Now, members of the younger generation are sitting here and unafraid. Tsai ended by saying that while she is comforted by young people’s involvement, she also feels the pressure from those of us sitting one row behind her.
During the Q&A session, one reporter asked: now that young people have endorsed you, what are you going to give them in return? Tsai responded by saying that she would consider appointing a young deputy chairperson (she has yet to do so). She went on: What kind of party will I give them? I will give them a clean party, one that is cooperative and welcoming, one that includes women and rational debate, one that is aggressive on Taiwan’s democracy, and a party that respects all groups of people.
She won the chair election by a large margin, but it wasn’t always supposed to be that way. Acting chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) had first proposed to hold negotiations for the position. His reasoning was that bitter campaigning would cause further damage to the party after its defeat in the presidential election. I just could not understand this. The party that took to the streets to ask for direct elections of the presidency should, naturally, hold one for its own leader. In the end, though it wasn’t pretty at times, the DPP contest was fair and square.
Only a few days after President Ma’s victory, the notoriously-speculative media predicted that Tsai could run against Ma when he is up for re-election in 2012. It’s obviously too early to tell, but she may well have to win the Taipei mayorship in 2010. As if it were an unwritten stepping-stone, all of the directly-elected Presidents (Lee, Chen and Ma) have once served as mayor of the capital.
But first, Tsai will have to deal with mayoral elections in several counties and townships at the end of 2009, which will serve as a big test during her 2-year term. While she has already said that she can’t promise a home run, she has promised at least a single. If the DPP doesn’t do well in those elections, by tradition Tsai will very likely have to step down. And we’ll have to endure another bowing session by party leaders. Unfortunately, we’ve seen enough of those during the past 8 years.
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