Ko Wen-je Is No Chiang Wei-shui: A Political Party with Blanks to Fill

Ko Wen-je Is No Chiang Wei-shui: A Political Party with Blanks to Fill

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 2, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je on August 1^st announced his intention to organize the "Taiwan People’s Party", borrowing the name of the political party founded by Chiang Wei-shui, the forerunner of Taiwan democracy, to express his wishes to inherit Chiang’s bequeathed legacy. Ko Wen-je and Chiang Wei-shui are both physicians, born on August 6, both having ambitions to reform politics. However, Ko Wen-je is no Chiang Wei-shui after all; the eras of the two have backgrounds far away from each other. Despite the fact that Ko Wen-je has deftly stung a linkage with Chiang Wei-shui, the Ko-brand "Taiwan People's Party", however, will appeal in what form and looks in the future is still not clear for people to imagine.

Based on the existing information, the principal objective of Ko Wen-je’s organizing a political party is first of all to send Ko’s lieutenants to the Legislative Yuan, occupying a minimum of ten seats as beachheads in the Parliament, becoming a third force with crucial influence. In fact, if Ko Wen-je wants to run for president, fighting single-handedly without organizational backup, he will face tremendous difficulties; this perhaps is the reason he had to form a political party.

Nevertheless, outside circles still cannot see who his possible partners of cooperation and comrades as party members are and how they are going to shape the soul of this political party. After all, who is he going to field in the legislative elections and who is he going to form an alliance for the presidential election? At present, neither is certain. In short, aside from "Ko fans" who swarm to register on-line for party membership, this is still a political party with blanks waiting to be filled.

From the optimistic perspective, this offers various beautiful kaleidoscopic imaginations; from the pessimistic perspective, this, nevertheless, has left many blanks. For instance, recently about a "Terry Gou-Ko Wen-je ticket", the talk of the town, could it develop into "Terry Gou, a diploma-of-honor-winning KMT party member", running for president representing the "Taiwan People’s Party", while Ko Wen-je remains in Taipei City Hall? Could Huang Guo-chang, who recently exposed the cigarette smuggling case, thus burying a seed of contention between the "big Green" and "small Green", switch to the Taiwan People’s Party, becoming a member of the Ko Wen-je army? Buddhist sect leader Miao Tian, chairman of the "Parliamentary Parties’ Alliance", did indicate his intention to assist Ko Wen-je in running for president; could both sides cooperate, with Miao Tien providing Ko Wen-je support with the necessary manpower and logistics?

In any case, Ko Wen-je has finally decided to organize a political party; so far as he himself is concerned, it could be called an important step. However, don't ever shame Chiang Wei-shui's shingle!

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