United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

 

July 12, 2019

 

 Translation of an Excerpt

 

 

 

The KMT presidential primary has been proceeding for four days; the hopefuls and their supporters have all been tensely wrestling with one another, reaching a climax. First, the Blue camp has been exhibiting a stronger will to fight, sweeping away the timidity for battle during the last presidential election. Second is the shaking off of the traditional mode of change of guard between elites according to seniority; the spontaneous mobilization by grassroots supporters has become more enthusiastic. Third, in comparison with the DPP’s primary, which repeatedly revised its rules, tailored for Tsai Ing-wen, the KMT Party Central, despite its passivity in strategy, did not have obvious partiality. From the above three points, people may see the traces of the KMT’s coping with changes; although the competition among the hopefuls is fierce, the five still maintain basic constraints, which is a good phenomenon.

 

In this primary the camps for the frontrunners Han Kuo-yu and Terry Gou have come on quite strong with a high degree of autonomy. However, after the primary, how the party central and the official candidate should work together with division of labor is something that must be more clear-cutly integrated. Otherwise, it may not be adequate to meet the challenge of Tsai Ing-wen, who, armed with the various party and government resources of government and the Green camp, would overwhelmingly attack in an encircling fashion with open and sniper fire. For the Blue camp to recapture power, there is no other way except solidarity. More cruelly, even with solidarity, the KMT may not necessarily win the race; if divided, then Taiwan can only prepare to accept once again Tsai Ing-wen’s lynching for four more years. May we ask, is this the end result that any Blue camp hopeful wants to witness?

Such simple logic, everybody, especially those seeking the highest office of the land, should understand perfectly. Thus, recently there have been rumors that a certain hopeful would bolt the party to run independently if not nominated; this must have been a campaign strategy or a campaign rumor, and doesn’t sound like something that would occur. The reason is very clear. For the hopefuls who have already entered the primary in the party, it means that they accept and respect the rules of the game laid down by the political party. If, to everybody’s surprise, a hopeful cavalierly bolts the party to run independently if not nominated, it is tantamount to declaring publically to the masses of society that he doesn’t have sportsmanship; this is no different from committing political suicide.

 

In addition, inside the KMT, there are other whisperings, saying that if the nominee from the primary should subsequently meet with attacks and mud-slinging by opponents, thus his support ratings dropped, some with wishful thinking thought the party could repeat the "changing of the official candidate incident", and replaced by himself. Honestly speaking, such a strange idea not only considers party politics as child’s play, but also underestimates the electorate’s wisdom and feelings. The "changing of the official candidate Hung Hsiu-chu incident" in 2016 was an ugly scandal in politics; if someone, surprisingly believes such a scene could be restaged once again, such a person should be swept into the dustbin of history.

 

 

 

Only three days are left before the KMT primary result will be revealed; the anxiety of all hopefuls is understandable. Also because of the strained situation, if there are over-zealous acts from any camp, it could possibly elicit resentment from the masses in society, resulting conversely in an effect of losing points. Therefore, all camps must maintain constraint and rationality, and ponder hard the possibility and winning strategy for further integration in the future; only by making the Blue camp lineup stronger can it be possible to deal with the cruel attacks of the Green camp.

 

In any case, the KMT cannot only consider the 2020 presidential election as an opportunity to recapture political power, it must deem the race as an opportunity for reforming the quality of political parties. More importantly, it must seriously think about its own relationship with the future of Taiwan's society and the country; if single-mindedly thinking about personal wishes and position of power, it would be forsaken by the masses.