DPP Foul-ups

The DPP laid several eggs recently...

First there was the heckling affair. There was a spate of articles in the news media, the usual puffery from the pro-China side, on pan-Blue heckling of the DPP leadership. ESWN, always on the anti-democracy side, has compiled a list of reports from the pro-Blue media here.

But of course, what they did is only an issue if you are setting out to make it an issue. The whole point of the pan-Blue coverage of the hecklers was to turn nothing into something, and Chen and Lu played right into their hands by saying nasty things. Chen's remark that there's no cover on the ocean, and people who love China should just swim there, is a good example of Chen appealing to his base by saying things that many Taiwanese think privately but few say out loud. That would be great if Chen were a retired President, or not the campaign Chairman, but..... Chen needs to get into the habit of saying "thank you," to hecklers and moving onto the next topic....it is irrelevant whether they are plants or not (news came out this morning that the heckler known as Charlie is a nutcase who was arrested yesterday for obnoxious behavior). They should simply be ignored.

Last week TVBS reported that China was returning mail stamped with "UN for Taiwan". Since the report came from TBVS, a station famous for making up news, I filed it away, but more credible news sources soon reported the same tale. For the full description, The Foreigner blogged on the UN for Taiwan postal fiasco, as does Taiwan Chronicles with a great post.

Has the UN for Taiwan tactic run its course? Well, it does have the KMT following along with a rival referendum. And it did get plenty of attention for Taiwan, and the negative attention did cause locals to rally round the flag. Ok, it is a popular issue and widely supported among the public at large. But after two months the campaign has grown stale. Time to move on, guys. Next big thing, please. And start talking about the economy. Don't let the KMT own that issue.

The UN for Taiwan campaign also raises another issue that I have complained about often in these pages: the abuse of the law and government by both parties. Everyone has noticed that all government buildings sport the UN for Taiwan banner. Even the train has "UN for Taiwan" in its running advertizements. Since the UN for Taiwan is the private tactic of a particular political party, the DPP is sending a message that the government is simply the spoils of whoever wins, just a combination ATM, advertizing agency, and work program for political hacks. The DPP did that a couple of weeks ago with the Torch Relay event (pics), when I noted:

Observers often note that over in China provincial and local authorities often declare themselves independent of Beijing. The same thing happens here, though not as obviously, because the law is administrative rather than normative, and has no ethical force for those underneath it. Last week the Taipei City government rightly pointed out that the DPP's UN Torch relay was illegal under the law since they hadn't applied for permission (too bad the city didn't take the same attitude toward Shih Ming-te's faux protests). President Chen then challenged the city government to arrest him. It's nice to defy authority....except when you are authority. Then you simply signal that that law is irrelevant if you have power. And that is the wrong signal to be sending in a democracy.

The fact is that good governance tends to make Taiwan independent, while bad governance serves China and the KMT, who both want to see governance fail here. That's why the KMT has been paralyzing the various branches of government, holding up needed legislation, and keeping its criminal servants in key positions in local government. The DPP needs to set a better example...

....as shown by events this weekend. The Central Election Commission (CEC) ruled that the referendum and vote ballots must be handed out together at polling stations. The purpose of this was to prevent the shenanigans that occurred last time around, when the KMT deliberately misled voters about the referendum in areas it controlled, reducing the number of voters who voted for it. Instead, the KMT now has the 18 counties whose governments it controls defying central government authority on the issue...

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended his party's plan to ignore the Central Election Committee's (CEC) ruling on "one-step voting" and instead adopt the "two step" voting system in 18 local cities and counties during the legislative election in January.

"The CEC's decision was merely an administrative order. The 18 city and county governments governed by the pan-blue camp would not violate any laws by adopting the two-step system," Ma said yesterday during a visit in Tainan City.

The CEC on Friday said that ballots for the Jan. 12 legislative election and referendums would be handed out together at the entrance to the polling stations, ending weeks of wrangling between the pan-blue and pan-green camps over the manner in which the ballots should be handed out.

The KMT condemned the CEC decision and vowed to stick to the two-step system.

Ma said the 18 local government heads would exercise their authority and handle the elections their own way to ensure order during the vote.

"The local government heads will be well-prepared to ensure that voting on election day goes unhindered," Ma said.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), meanwhile, confirmed yesterday that the Taipei City Government would also follow the KMT's plan and would start educating Taipei residents about the process.

"The two-step system will prevent disputes over election-related issues. Besides, the arrangement of elections lies within the local government's authority," he said in Taipei yesterday.

The 18 pan-blue local governments signed a joint statement pledging to exercise their authority according to the Local Government Act (地方自治法) and handle the Jan. 12 elections their own way.

Thanks to its defiance of the law over the Torch Relay case and numerous other instances, the DPP government does not own the moral high ground on this one.

[Taiwan] [DPP] [KMT]