Recall Huang Guo-chang, Instill Fear in Politicians

  Recall Huang Guo-chang, Instill Fear in Politicians

China Times (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 15, 2017

Translation of an Excerpt

The countdown to Huang’s recall election day is only a few weeks away; perhaps the voice of recall was truly overwhelming, but the usually unperturbed Huang Guo-chang has to seriously confront it. A couple of weeks ago, Huang Guo-chang organized a large-scale walk along the street in Xizhi titled "Volunteers Support a Conscientious Huang Guo-chang," shaking hands and pressing flesh with the crowds, claiming that he would call up 10,000 people to support him; in the end only about a 1,000 or so volunteers were present, and Huang Guo-chang himself was also there.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of how this Stability Power Alliance could have garnered nearly 30,000 co-sponsorships in a short period of time, a news magazine conducted investigative reporting. It wanted to find out voters with what kind of social background support recalling Huang Guo-chang; it found out that behind the move, there are none of the so-called conservative rich and powerful, but a group of "conservative voters" who insist on traditional families and gender ethics. This group of conservative voters came principally from the metropolitan middle class and grassroots of outlying rural townships, irrespective of Blue and Green and crossing religious beliefs.

The launch to recall Huang Guo-chang this time has nothing to do with personal grudges; not even Blue-Green confrontation could fully explain it. The principal mobilizing force still came from grassroots churches and parent groups, and because of the embarrassing performance of Huang Guo-chang’s negligence in rendering services to the grassroots, plus his clear-cut stance in favor of same-sex marriage and gender equality, the whole thing has been magnified!

Examining anew the grounds in the co-sponsorship document for recalling Huang Guo-chang, especially his characteristics of "saying one thing and doing another" in interpellating government officials, were indeed despicable. With regard to his behavior, some say that many politicians are all like this, so why pick on Huang Guo-chang alone for recall? The key point is this: Huang Guo-chang is an indicator; with regard to the wrong things done by many politicians, the grassroots masses of course have the right to say no! Don’t they?

Attachment : none