Let Public Opinion Be the Final Arbiter

 Let Public Opinion Be the Final Arbiter

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 10, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Following the nine-in-one local elections last yearend, the Han Kuo-yu vogue has become even stronger and the popular opinion hoping that Han Kuo-yu would enter the 2020 presidential race sharply climbed. After Han Kuo-yu sailed through the DPP’s launching of the first wave of “blocking Han” attack through interpellations at the Kaohsiung City Council, his reputation soared even higher. Han actively sought orders for Kaohsiung's farm and orchard produce as well as seafood during his tour of Malaysia and Singapore, with bountiful results. In the legislative by-elections, both in Tainan and New Taipei City, Han traveled to the north and south, stumping for the KMT’s candidates, continuing to show stunning charisma. Subsequently he will visit Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen, and Xiamen, and then the United States; it may be imagined that he will be enthusiastically welcomed by overseas Chinese, both individuals and community groups. Han Kuo-yu in actuality is no longer just the Mayor of Kaohsiung, but the veritable leader of the pan-Blue camp.

Huge popular support has brought a heavy burden and Han Kuo-yu has not indicated that he would enter the 2020 presidential race; objective circumstances do not allow him to so indicate. To speak honestly, whether Han Kuo-yu runs for president is not a matter he himself could decide, but by vox populi. The KMT’s electoral prospects look good this year; a number of at large legislators have indicated that they would don armor to run for districts; the presidential race has also been a hot topic, with several big wigs contending to be the standard bearer. The big wigs seem to believe that as long as they win the party’s nomination, the presidency will be a shoo-in, overlooking, however, the importance of the legislative elections to be held at the same time. We must know that the crux to blocking the DPP’s legislative program of bad laws is the Legislative Yuan; moreover, the presidential candidate is the hen in the combined presidential and legislative elections, thus we need a powerful leader for the chicks to win the legislative elections, with the chicks swarming around the hen to the battlefields.

There is no need for the KMT to ask Han Kuo-yu to make his stance known at the present; in accordance with the timetable for the party’s primary, the registration of hopefuls for the KMT’s presidential candidate will end in May, and the opinion polls and party membership vote will be held in June. If the public hopes that Han will climb to a higher echelon, and if Kaohsiung citizenry are willing to release Han to "save Taiwan," the nominees for district legislators also hope that Han wins the election, then the Party Central ought to draft Han Kuo-yu to enter the primary. We believe that the KMT’s big wigs will not have different views.

In the social media era, the autonomy and activeness of popular opinion have greatly increased; operations in the opposite direction and in violation of vox populi are tantamount to actively seeking one’s own failure.

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