To Recall Han Kuo-yu, Is It Worth It for You to Cut Throat by Jettisoning Neutrality?

To Recall Han Kuo-yu, Is It Worth It for You to Cut Throat by Jettisoning Neutrality?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 28, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

Next weekend, an election will be held in Kaohsiung City to recall Mayor Han Kuo-yu. On the surface, it is the civic group "WeCare" that initiated the move, and it is also a public opinion trial that Han Kuo-yu must accept for his rash decision to throw his hat in the presidential election campaign; everyone is now waiting to see the outcome. In essence, it is a battle of the DPP “puppeteers”, aiming to pave the way for Chen Chi-mai's revenge and return to Kaohsiung City Hall. Taking a deeper look, recently various Cabinet ministries intervened in the battle to recall Han Kuo-yu without any qualms for accusations of conflict of interests, agreeing to be clowns for helping Chen. For recalling Han, this mobilization of such mammoth and powerful battle formations, in the end, may also be a bubonic plague that destroys the foundation of democracy and administrative neutrality in Taiwan.

At the end of 2016, the DPP spearheaded moves to lower the bar for the recall of elected public officials, and this time it is precisely convenient to try the hatchet on Han Kuo-yu. For a mayor elected with 890,000 votes, according to the new bar, 570,000 votes would make him step down; does this conform with the principle of proportionality in democracy? Even so, the DPP still has to mobilize various Cabinet ministries to engage in a cut-throat war in contravention of administrative neutrality, which is indeed eye-opening.

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