Tsai Ing-wen's Power Game

 Tsai Ing-wen's Power Game

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 5, 2019

Translation of an Excerpt

The DPP’s presidential primary has once again been mired in an impasse; presidential secretary-general Chen Chu even publicly lambasted the DPP party central, escalating once again the Tsai-Lai dispute, while party members feel extreme anxiety because of this. President Tsai Ing-wen has been seeking wholeheartedly the opportunity to be re-elected; nevertheless, viewed from the cross-analysis over the results of many recent surveys, President Tsai’s "efforts" not only failed to provide huge assistance to the re-election bid that she expected, conversely, they have made the DPP’s gap from mainstream vox populi all the more distant.

The ordinary folks all know that if this party continues to behave in the way that it does, in the 2020 presidential election, it will inevitably repeat the same fate of the stunning defeat in the 2018 local elections. Lamentably, since the DPP regained the “Ring of Power,” those who follow their original motivation to speak the truth are too few in number. Now that Tsai Ing-wen has hijacked the DPP, she has taken advantage of the Office of the President, using the resources of the state to generate propaganda in an attempt to build up electoral prospects and squeeze Lai Ching-te to the margins. She has exhausted various unfair approaches to salvage victory for herself, completely forsaking the traditional democratic values of the DPP.

In order to firmly grasp power, President Tsai Ing-wen thinks nothing of undermining the DPP’s primary tradition internally, forcibly forbidding former premier Lai Ching-te the opportunity for a fair competition. Externally, through provoking the other side of the Strait, she has created tensions in the Taiwan Strait, escalating cross-Strait confrontation to strengthen the reputation and opportunity for her re-election. By playing with fire, she may, with a small mistake, entangle all people on Taiwan.

We would like to advise President Tsai that the DPP’s power game in oppressing and squeezing Lai Ching-te might be effective, but returning to the big chess game of nationwide competition, the swing voters and Blue camp supporters will make their own judgments. Entertaining the idea of presidential re-election, you must return to the great path of democratic competition, and not think of snatching re-election through unfair approaches, and never, for the egoistic clinging to power, lead the DPP and Taiwan toward the abyss of fall and destruction.

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