Taiwan's Democracy Ranks at End of Politicians’ Motorcade

 Taiwan's Democracy Ranks at End of Politicians’ Motorcade

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 9, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Many people have noticed that Taiwan's democratic politics has moved, more and more so, toward "partisanship": the party that gained political power only pursues its own interests, but neglects the balanced development and integral interests of the country. What people have paid less attention to is the phenomenon of "personalization" in Taiwan's democratic politics: people pin their hopes on a small number of political stars, believing that they can bring them redemption, but forget to pursue the deepening of democracy in different areas, while the new political stars, however, let down the people. These two points are the major reasons that Taiwan's democracy could not elevate itself in the past years; today we are going to talk about the second point.

Look at the recent political atmospherics. Tsai Ying-wen has been in office for a mere 15 months, with her prestige plummeting rapidly. However, the heated discussions by the ruling and opposition parties as well as political talk shows are not about how Taiwan should rescue this country from the quagmire and putting politics back on track, but, conversely, place the focus on the next election, discussing who among the DPP could take the incumbent’s place, and who among the opposition party has a better chance for electoral victory.

Looking back at Taiwan’s changes in the last 20-odd years, democratic politics has become shallow to the point that only elections remain; elections have been hollowed out to the point of a few stars have been hyped to the point that only populist slogans remain. This is, in fact, a very serious thing. When democratic politics is tantamount to being placed at the end of the motorcade in the careers of political figures, being only able to follow in other’s footsteps, this is fundamentally putting the cart before the horse!

Taiwan has experienced "democratic achievements" of three political party turnovers; now what we have earned in exchange is divergences in national identity, exhausting of economic vitality, and the rupture of social and national sentiments. Shouldn’t we be alert over the phenomenon of "personalization" in politics?

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