Tuesday, March 10, 2015

DPP: 2 Steps Forward, 1.99 Back II

A conclave of ladybugs

One reason I do not share the optimism of my fellow pan-Greens regarding the DPP is its infinite ability to undermine itself when it gets a little lead, not just my contrarian, suicidal pessimism. Two more DPP stupidities recently. First, the party doesn't seem to be able to prevent children of prominent DPPers are running for office (FocusTw). Political dynasties are a problem in all democracies, but in Asia the situation is particularly bad. Hopefully all of these candidates will lose in the primaries.,,
Prominant pan-green legacy candidates include Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), daughter of fomer DPP chairman and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Liao Yi-kun (廖宜琨), son of former legislator Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙), and Yu Ping-tao (游秉陶), son of Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), another former DPP chairman and premier, and Cheng Yu-hao (鄭余豪), son of former legislator Cheng Yu-chen (鄭余鎮).
Not mentioned is Chen Shui-bian's son Chen Chih-chung, who is thinking of running. Last election, he cost the DPP an easy seat in Kaohsiung by running as an independent and splitting the vote. The DPP took him back anyway, even though he's been nothing but problems for them. Solidarity.tw pointed out to me that they just want to collect the votes of his supporters.

WantWant has the story intermingling it with another foulup:
Chen Chih-chung, son of Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian, said Monday that there was no evidence to support the corruption allegations made by outgoing Democratic Progressive Party spokeswoman Hsu Chia-ching against his father.

Hsu, a former veteran member of the Taipei city council, said at a gathering with members of the Taiwanese Association of America in Dallas in February that Chen Shui-bian had accepted billions of dollars in donations from construction companies when he was in office from 2000-2008.

Hsu also questioned the merits of the DPP possibly nominating Chen Chih-chung to run for a legislative seat next year.
Yes, that's right. The DPP spokeswoman went to the United States and stated in front of an important source of donations for the DPP that Chen Shui-bian took bribes, which she knew because a bunch of (likely pro-KMT) businesspeople told her this. No evidence offered for these legally actionable accusations. She then revealed party internal affairs in publicly discussing Chen Chih-chung. Needlessly stupid. She was then forced to resign and Tsai forced to distance herself from the remarks, saying they were just her personal opinions, while Hsu once again brought the sensitive and explosive topic of Chen Shui-bian into the public spotlight. Finally, the party loses (the promotion of) an experienced politician who should have known better. What a waste. Luckily the news cycle has the attention span of a Golden Retriever...
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Daily Links:
  • WAY COOL VIDEO: Buzzards dine on hornets nest at Taipei Zoo
  • IMPORTANT: Frozen Garlic on the DPP nomination contests. He also analyzes the negative voting proposal. Yawp, it's silly.
  • Steven Crook in Taiwan Review: Building Up Regional Advantages
  • Comically, the Education Ministry insists that its pro-China adjustments to the school curriculum prepared by non-scholars who didn't follow procedure was perfectly ok.
  • Taiwan's nukes nearing capacity for fuel rod storage, says former Ma advisor slamming gov't nuke policy. The nuke issue could be a big winner for the DPP, except that it would have to follow through once in power, and will that happen? Anyone's guess. 
  • Nantou's Garbage Crisis from Taiwan Take.
  • Nick Kembel's report on the Yanshui Fireworks Festival. I've never gone, and local temple officials tolerate the foreigners' everyone's behavior, but regard it as insulting to the god, one told me when I was there last time. It's a shame there is so much focus on the ridiculous fireworks festival, because Yenshui is one of the best little towns in Taiwan for exploring and enjoying, with many old buildings and an Old Street that is not a total kitsch disaster like everywhere else in Taiwan. 
  • Solidarity.tw translates article on Ma handing out directorships of state-run firms to political pals.
  • Yeh Chieh-ting's piece from a couple of years ago on young blood in the two major parties.
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12 comments:

solidarity.tw said...

Hsu's stepped down as spokesperson but she's still a Taipei City Councilwoman and after a short break she's sure to be back on the TV circuit where she spends every evening. Actually, I'd bet the influence of her TV time is the reason she made this dumb mistake: spreading salacious rumors from anonymous sources is all just part of a day's work there.

Anonymous said...

Like Adam Smith said, the best and worst thing about we young people is the boundless optimism that comes from not having lived through the last crash.

Madisonian said...

I support Chen Chih-chung’s run for the Legislature. What else could he do for his life? Holding a regular job is definitely out of the question. No one is going to hire him. I would gladly vote for him and pull a chair to watch prince’s revenge in its full glory.

Mike Fagan said...

" Two more DPP stupidities recently. First, the party doesn't seem to be able to prevent children of prominent DPPers are running for office..."

What do you want them to do, introduce an anti-nepotism rule? At the same time the gormless Chelsea is running around citing "big-data" research and "explaining" that more women around the world can look for work if only they have internet access. She obviously didn't attend the best schools money can buy for nothing.

yunhsuan said...

neopotism isnt neccessarily a bad thing. If your parents are already in the career field that you are interested in, it's no brainer to ask them for help, right? why reinvent the wheel?

Michael Turton said...

"""su's stepped down as spokesperson but she's still a Taipei City Councilwoman and after a short break she's sure to be back on the TV circuit where she spends every evening. ""

I wasn't clear. Obviously she isn't going to be headed for higher positions for a while.

Michael

Mike Fagan said...

@yunhsuan

"Help" is one thing, but unearned acquisition of status is another. It attracts sycophancy and concealed contempt rather than respect. Additionally, unearned responsibility is dangerous - particularly in areas where mistakes may have larger-order consequences.

les said...

Taiwan needs be to moving away from cult of personality politics. The opposition should be using nepotism as a weapon in it's campaign strategy against KMT, not adopting this bad habit.
I wish Chen Chih-chung would emigrate to the US and enjoy the wealth that the IRS hasn't grabbed yet. No need for him in Taiwan politics. He'll never wash the dirt of his father off himself, no matter how unfair it was or how clean he himself may be. The stink isn't going away and it only brings harm to the DPP to keep him around.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing inherently wrong with the children of politicians entering politics so long as they're competent and aren't launched into positions of power without working their way up. Most of the DPP 'princelings' are running for city council/legislature seats and are going through rough primaries.

Jerome Besson said...

I quit minding DPP-related news way back in 2008. They are all "jungongjiao" (軍公教) feeding off the pseudo-ROC government;

ROC government means Taiwan domestic version for the TRA-labelled Taiwan authority InC., a corporation that the US tolerates on US-occupied Japanese Taiwan to better control the 1949 Chinese civil war boat peoples and the offspring they sired on US-occupied Japanese Taiwan.

All part and parcel of the same US-China scam to obliterate the new Carthage.

Anonymous said...

Chen Chih-chung has dropped out: http://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/201503130195-1.aspx

Anonymous said...

Chen Jr us 10% ahead in the poll, sdo he quits. What us that?