Luo Wen-jia Blows the Bugle for Presidential Electoral Campaign

 Luo Wen-jia Blows the Bugle for Presidential Electoral Campaign

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 18, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Luo Wen-jia, of the "Wild Lily Generation," who was a speech writer for corrupt President Chen Shui-bian, has become secretary-general of the DPP at the invitation of its new chairman Cho Jung-tai. Having just assumed office, Luo presented a fresh view on the DPP’s defeat and Taiwan’s future. Luo positions the 2020 presidential election as a cross-Strait life-and-death battle, equating Taiwan’s destiny with the DPP’s electoral victory, meaning that the DPP will once again play its old tactics, i.e., utilizing the public’s sense of fear against Mainland China to engage in emotional hijacking in order to cover up the situation of decadence resulting from failure in governance.

Consistent with its usual approach, the DPP first positions the election as a cross-Strait battle and then binds its own destiny to that of Taiwan, making the two virtual synonyms. That is to say, if the DPP loses, Taiwan is finished; in order to safeguard Taiwan, the voters must cast their ballots for the DPP. This logic, in fact, does not hold water; defining the DPP as the lifeline for Taiwan’s survival is exceedingly arrogant, and is also utilizing hate-China psychology to engage in rhetoric for emotional hijacking. Raising the cross-Strait battle line of enemies to domestic operations results in the rupture of the social fabric again and again, with wounds unable to be healed forever, and the whole country being exhausted internally and debilitated, endlessly consumed in mutual distrust and hatred. To manipulate the electoral campaign into a cross-Strait life-and-death struggle not only compresses the room for rational discussions of cross-Strait policies, but also restricts the opportunity for cross-Strait thawing and reconciliation.

In fact, the public have clear and bright eyes; the public have now seen through the DPP’s customary approach of manipulations. After manipulating for long, the public will always become clearheaded, knowing full-well that Taiwan’s survival is not pinned to a certain political party; besides rivalry and confrontation, there are still options of reconciliation and cooperation between the two sides of the Strait. Being able to give the people better livelihoods is a good ruling team; relying on the approach of playing the China-phobia card to rupture social fabric in order to win ballots has already been seen through by the electorate.

If Luo Wen-jia truly has the heart to improve the brand of the DPP, the answer is not to seek foes on the other side of the Strait or internally, but to actually conduct soul-searching to review what the public wants; only good governance can provide growth for the country and can truly safeguard Taiwan's survival.

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