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Tsai Ing-wen launches her campaign
‘TAIWAN NEXT’: Tsai pledged to bridge Taiwan’s
widening income disparity and the urban-rural divide, phase out the use of
nuclear power and protect the environment
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen waves during an address at
the launch of her election campaign in her hometown in Pingtung County
yesterday.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) launched her campaign in her hometown
in Pingtung County yesterday, laying out four main policy initiatives that she
said would pave the party’s road back into the presidency next year.
The DPP chairperson revealed her election slogan — “TAIWAN NEXT” — in big yellow
letters against a black background that her campaign says is representative of
her plan to bring Taiwan “to the next level and the next generation.”
“Let’s make the right choices for the next generation,” Tsai told supporters at
a fishing harbor, announcing that she plans to shutter Taiwan’s nuclear industry
by 2025, enact judicial reform, spur more localized economic development and
create a better social welfare net.
Tsai plans to spend the next few months in 73 speaking engagements throughout
the country as part of her “TAIWAN NEXT” election tour. The tour will double as
campaign events for local legislative nominees, who are counting on a tide of
support for the presidential candidate to sweep them into power.
Tsai said that a future DPP administration would make bridging Taiwan’s income
disparity one of its first priorities. Speaking especially about smaller cities
and counties, she said “flawed” government policies had failed to protect rural
industries and create badly needed jobs.
If elected president next year, she said she would redistribute national
resources to “let the places that need development receive the care and
resources they need” and balance the urban-rural divide, vowing to halt
continued population loss in more rural areas.
Pingtung County is the site of the nation’s third nuclear power plant, at which
Tsai has vowed to gradually wind down operations, leading to a complete closure
of the nuclear industry by 2025 in favor of sustainable energy sources like wind
and solar energy.
Appearing together with Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻), the
two signed a “nuclear-free homeland” pledge that has so far formed the crux of
Tsai’s campaign. A disaster at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would have
“unimaginable” consequences, she said.
Tsai also spoke at a later engagement in Greater Kaohsiung. The events in both
places, located in pan-green bastions, coincided with President Ma Ying-jeou’s
(馬英九) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) national congress in Greater Taichung,
which confirmed Ma as the party presidential candidate and Premier Wu Den-yih
(吳敦義) as Ma’s running mate.
Taking aim at the Ma administration, Tsai said that since Ma took power in 2008,
much of the public has felt “nothing but disappointment” at many of his
government’s policies, including the “6-3-3” campaign pledge that later proved
unattainable.
“Taiwan’s human rights, democracy and media freedoms have all declined in the
past three years,” she said.
On the sovereignty issue, she also said that the government has been too silent
on the word “Taiwan.”
“We should be proud to be Taiwanese,” she said. “And after 2012, we will again
loudly proclaim to the world that we are Taiwanese and rightfully showcase to
the international community Taiwan’s democratic and economic achievements.”
Tsai will use the English words “TAIWAN NEXT” as the DPP election slogan going
into the joint -elections next year, a spokesperson confirmed last month. In a
statement on Friday, her campaign office said that the motif would be used
alongside the Chinese slogan of “Hope Taiwan, Just Society.”
Economically, Tsai has said that a future administration would seek to ensure
that all Taiwanese, not just a select few, benefit from a rising GDP. She has
also said, without giving numbers, that she plans to make large public
investments in education, social security and affordable housing.
Tsai has also promised to make environmental protection one of her main
priorities.
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