On last night's election results: my overriding feeling is one of indifference, though perhaps with a slight tint of vindication that a majority of Taiwanese people did not vote for the DPP; they are not a strong, credible alternative to the KMT.
The reason for this is the crippling Leftist bias which is seemingly infused throughout the party. The fact that this bias puts them somewhat at odds with the U.S. party most willing to support them - the Republicans - seems to be totally lost on them. I have spent the last three years doing what little I can to challenge the Leftist bias in the Taipei Times and among the broader "community" of westerners here - all seemingly to no avail.
Since the initial euphoria of the DPP's early years is long gone, my opinion is that the party will never again win a majority in an election until they purge themselves of their Leftist bent and begin to attack the Nationalist Party from a more properly Liberal platform of constitutionally limited government, private property rights and economic freedom, sound monetary policy and disciplined fiscal restraint.
To take it in its' broadest dimensions, the strategy which the DPP must come to accept is one of depoliticization of Taiwanese society; of reducing the size and scope of government. Not only would such a strategy, if implemented, allow the DPP to present itself to voters as the responsible party prepared to deal seriously with the coming debt, fiscal and monetary crises - for which the governing KMT will have to shoulder public approbation - but it would also allow the DPP to tackle the institutional power of the KMT at its root, in its patronage networks which continue to exist via direct and indirect forms of State support.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
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Long before policy changes you will be able to judge if there is real change in the view-of-the-world of the DPP (and the KMT).
ReplyDeleteYou will be able to judge by whether they finally start to understand that "Social Justice" is an EVIL thing, not a good thing.
I know Paul, but I'm not optimistic on that score. Yet.
ReplyDelete