Taiwan's Election

For those of you who knows me well, you might have noticed that over the past few years, I have become less vocal about politics, less ideological and more indifferent about world affiars. In additional as a sign of maturity to not talk about these issues, the truth of the matter is that I still DO care. But I am less inclined to talk about these topics because they will inevitibly create frictions. I am just waiting for the moments when the world becomes more of a centrist place before I share my views with friends again, and as always, I am also open to different point of views. Just not those that are absolute. The election in Taiwan yesterday, I hope, is a great starting point...

The local (county) level election in Taiwan concluded yesterday. Among the total 23 seats of county-level mayors, the KMT won 14 seats, compared with the former eight seats, and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won six, down from 10, according to the results announced by the Taiwan authorities late Saturday. For the past six years, the ruling DPP really disasppinted me. Six years ago, when Taiwan elected President Chen as the first none KMT president, my hope, like everyone elses, was high. While I am not a believer of some of the more radical DPP policies, such as seeking independence, I did have high hope that the DPP leadership would create a more developed civil society. Unfortunately, the result over the past six years was the opposite of my hope. The DPP, over the past six years, has created nothing but more ethnic frictions amongst the various groups in Taiwan. The economy of the country has been stagnant for 4 years, corruption and incompetence is rampant amongst the DPP officials (not saying the KMTs are much better). and the people who truly suffered are the everyday citizens of the country. Taiwan, in my eyes, over the last six years, was without direction. And it is sad to see.

I hope with this election, paving the road for next years house and legislature election, and the 2008 presidential election, things will change.


As a person born