Madame President, Don’t Let Thoughts of Re-Election Hijack Yourself

 Madame President, Don’t Let Thoughts of Re-Election Hijack Yourself

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

May 25, 2017

 Translation of an Except

Since the National Day message, Tsai Ing-wen has not given any public speeches, canceling even the address on her anniversary in office. President Tsai possibly fully understands that popular grievances have piled up, that there is no return from the various reforms, and the cross-Strait policy of "maintaining the status quo" based on rejecting the premise of the 1992 Consensus on has no room for concessions, thus she decided not to communicate with the outside world again. Once Tsai stressed that her administration would be the most communicative ever. Now, on the other hand, she relies on the protection of the historically highest barricades, continuously losing popular support. This has created a free-fall phenomenon for the legitimacy of Tsai Ing-wen’s government.

In cross-Strait relations, the Mainland’s pressure grows by the day, compressing Taiwan without leaving any room for face-saving. Since the KMT elected a new party chairman, the atmospherics of its struggle against the DPP have climbed. The DPP internal factions have begun to show fissures toward Tsai Ying-wen’s leadership; Chen Shui-bian, who has been on medical parole, attempts to use political maneuverings to compel Tsai Ing-wen’s presidential pardon. Tsai Ying-wen is simultaneously facing pressure on four fronts, i.e., cross-Strait relations, low public opinion support ratings, the KMT confrontation, and the stirrings of DPP factions to chart their own course. Tsai Ing-wen's road to re-election will be extremely arduous.

Since the ROC adopted direct presidential elections, every president, in his first term administration, has set re-election as the primary objective; President Tsai Ying-wen is no exception. Thinking of re-election often undermines re-election; this seems to have become a rule. The spoils of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Plan, Chen Shui-bian’s defying moves to hijack Tsai, and the escalation of cross-Strait rivalries have all caused great harm to Tsai Ing-wen’s march toward re-election. To seek re-election, conversely, she should take the opposite direction, and “set aside thought of re-election.”

As a Buddhist sutra says "reveal the cause and not the effect." Tsai Ying-wen should not be obsessed with the effect of re-election, but rather find out the cause of why she cannot be re-elected. She should delve into the cause and shake off the entanglements so that the only one thing that remains in her mind is to implement post haste whatever public policies are beneficial to Taiwan's overall welfare and to Taiwan’s long-term macro-development. One does not seek the highest position with cleverness, and not seeking is, in fact, seeking. Only by not thinking of re-election is there a possibility of a successful re-election, and at the same time, laying a solid foundation for sustained reforms during a second term.

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