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Tsai’s campaign to
focus on social ills
GREEN CONCERNS: Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwanese
society was calling upon the DPP again and it had always prided itself as being
the party that ‘stands by the people’
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party
Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, front left, and her presidential election campaign
director Su Tseng-chang, front right, beat war drums at a rally in Taipei
yesterday.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
officials were in an exuberant mood at the party’s first national campaign
meeting yesterday as Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said social issues, in
particular income inequality, would be the central pitch of her presidential
campaign.
“Today, Taiwanese society is calling on us again,” Tsai told hundreds of
campaign officials at the meeting, saying that not only have the underprivileged
suffered under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration in the past
three-and-a-half years, but the middle class has also been plagued by stagnant
wages, high unemployment and poor industrial competitiveness.
In a nutshell, she said, most people are under the threat of poverty and income
inequality.
She proposed tax reforms that would make capital gains tax — rather than income
tax — the major source of government revenue. The first step would be reforms to
the real-estate transaction tax to stop property speculation, she said.
The DPP would also make good governance a central issue of the campaign, which
Tsai said would be crucial to sustaining Taiwan’s democratic way of life,
maintaining social justice and creating a sustainable environment.
The DPP always prides itself as being the party that “stands by the people,” she
said, and despite the setbacks of the past few years, that spirit has never
changed.
While the absence of former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who is abroad, and
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) raised some eyebrows, DPP officials looked
confident after a two-hour discussion of the details of the campaign, from
strategy to the division of labor.
They were briefed on a national opinion poll that showed that Tsai is leading Ma
by a slim margin and the DPP gaining ground in northern and central Taiwan,
which have traditionally been Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) strongholds.
The DPP was satisfied with the progress and tempo of the campaign, said Lin
Hsi-yao (林錫耀), a senior aide in Tsai’s office who is in charge of campaign
operations.
The major task before the party’s national campaign headquarters is set up in
Banciao (板橋), New Taipei City (新北市), in October will be grassroots-level
organizational work in civic organizations, the private sector and religious
groups, Lin said.
The campaign office will unveil its second campaign slogan, following the
“Taiwan NEXT” slogan, very soon and it will highlight the poverty issue, he
said.
Tsai shared the podium with former premiers Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Frank Hsieh
(謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun, all of whom are expected to play important roles in the
campaign, as well as other prominent party members.
As campaign chairman — more a symbolic position than a functional one — Su would
be able to help Tsai a great deal by simply voicing his support, Lin said.
Hsieh will be in charge of mobilization and Internet campaigning, while Yu will
be the campaign’s finance officer, he said.
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