Will Terry Gou Run for President?

 A Commentary

Will Terry Gou Run for President?

Source: United Daily News

February 7, 2017

          It has been barely half a year since Terry Gou acquired Sharp, yet Sharp registered a net gain for the first time in nine quarters. Dubbed the Genghis Khan of the business world, does Terry Gou truly possess the Midas touch? The notion of Gou running for President seemingly simmered down recently, but it could gain traction at any point in time.

          Gou has been likened to Taiwan’s Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and America’s Donald Trump. But Gou is an esteemed leader in the field of electronics manufacturing, and his accomplishments far exceed that of Ko’s skill as the head of an emergency department or Trump’s achievements in real estate development. Most importantly, the image that Gou projects is starkly different from Ko’s elitism or Trump’s flamboyance. One instinctively trusts Gou more than such characters as Ko and Trump.

          Moreover, the state of Taiwan’s politics is such that neither side inspires much confidence in the people, a hard lesson that people in Taiwan learned in the 30 years since the lifting of the martial law rule. Little surprise then that the topic of Gou running for President has led many to wonder if this is an opportunity for Taiwan to take a turn for the better. If Gou does indeed throw his hat in the ring, Tsai Ing-wen would be in for a fight to get re-elected in 2020. The presence of Gou looms over the shoulders of all future presidential hopefuls.

          Hence, regardless of whether he runs for President or not, as long as the people carry a flicker of hope in their hearts that Gou would run for president, this is probably a shot in the arm of sorts for Taiwan’s politics. It would also serve as a warning sign to politicians from both parties trapped in the never-ceasing contest for power: the people’s imagination of what Guo might mean for Taiwan is a reflection of the utter disappointment they feel towards the state of Taiwan’s politics. 

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