Grand Debate on the Affairs of State Should Not Be Skipped

 Grand Debate on the Affairs of State Should Not Be Skipped

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 14, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The official registration for presidential candidates is around the corner. KMT candidate Han Kuo-yu has announced Simon Chang as his running mate, while DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen is expected to announce Lai Ching-te as her vice presidential candidate in a couple of days. Thus, the race will officially start now.

Focusing on abstract political issues is the DPP’s campaign strategy, believing that it could rely on this to incite negative sentiments of anti-China, hate-China, and de-Sinicization, putting Han Kuo-yu and the KMT in the quagmire of pro-China, selling out Taiwan, relatively weaker political stance, while being able to evade criticisms for review resulting from its failed governance.

Simon Chang is a pure and upright political figure whose policy ideology transcends politics, whose thinking in the affairs of state rises above partisanship, who is pragmatically-oriented rather than slogan-oriented; with Simon Chang as Han’s running mate and continuing to guide the planning of the affairs of state, it is sufficient to channel the presidential race into an exploration of offense and defense over the substantive effects of policies, offering rich materials for rational choices to the electorate.

Since the DPP came to power three and a half years ago, it has inclined to rely on ideology for governance in crucial issues, using inflammatory slogans as policy guidelines, especially being extremely bigoted and radical in the pivotal cross-Strait policies, leading to a basket of slanted and mistaken policies undermining the opportunities for Taiwan's development, delaying and harming the excellent opportunity for transformation and upgrading, even leaving behind a lot of thorny maladies difficult to resolve.

We must, through the presidential race, conduct a "grand debate on the affairs of state"; all candidates must present substantive policy advocacies, letting them engage in a sophisticated debate with offense and defense, putting them on a scale for the electorate to compare, and making a wise choice in the end, so that the country may be able to move forward on the right path.

Attachment : none