After Jettisoning Ko Wen-je, the DPP Will Be Further Away from Middle Way

 After Jettisoning Ko Wen-je, the DPP Will Be Further Away from Middle Way

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 18, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The DPP has decided to field its own candidate in the Taipei City mayoral election, no longer yielding to Ko Wen-je, and has activated the mechanism to draft its strongest candidate. On the surface, the DPP may claim that fielding its own candidate is returning to the normal competition of "party politics." However, observed from the twists and turns in this case, it is in actuality the DPP’s dodging and compromise under the double attack of the ineffectual governance in the central government and feelings of dissatisfaction at the local level. This also signifies that after parting ways with Ko Wen-je, the DPP will be further away from swing voters and the values of the middle way, leaving Taiwan’s prospects more worrisome.

The DPP jettisoned its alliance with Ko Wen-je, having perhaps different political calculations; with regard to this, we would never know. Nevertheless, proclaiming a parting of ways with Ko Wen-je means that the Taipei City mayoral campaign would be morphed into a three-way race among the Blue, Green, and White, with the battle situation and strategy presenting a different picture; the DPP will inevitably be moving towards a more radical path. Take cross-Strait relations for instance. The DPP originally opposed the KMT’s route of reconciliation, negating the 1992 consensus at the same time. Now it has listed Ko Wen-je as a target of attack; it not only has to attack the narrative that “the two sides of the Strait are family” but also has to vilify the Twin City Forum, negating various exchanges. As a result of this, cross-Strait atmospherics will inevitably become more polluted. In other words, just when the people are fed up with the Blue-Green confrontation, the DPP, for attacking Ko Wen-je and the Blue as well, will inevitably bring the vicious Blue-Green struggle to the extreme, destroying nearly everything in the pursuit of values ​​transcending Blue and Green on the part of swing voters, "cutting throats till the end."

After Ko Wen-je made his confession to please the DPP, it still chose to "cut off Ko"; for arrogant and maverick Ko Wen-je, this is of course a loud warning blow. Nevertheless, for the ferocious but diffident DPP, this may well be the result of a series of losses of control; at the very least, people do not see the willingness of those generals who have been named to don their armor for the battle. After all, no matter how well-versed in meticulous calculations, the DPP cannot close the loophole created by the maladministration of the central government.

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