Hapless Hsieh
With ROC President 陳水扁 Chen Shui-Bian’s popularity in a nosedive, both sides of the political divide in Taiwan are looking to the future for some sign of hope. Unfortunately, the silver lining in this cloud is proving hard to find. The DPP’s seemingly endless Taipei mayoral election problems point to stormy waters ahead.
Former 謝長廷 Premier Frank Hsieh has been the expected candidate since nearly the beginning. The problem is that Hsieh keeps saying over and over that he does’t want it. The pressure is on from ROC Premier 蘇貞昌 Su Tseng-chan, who is admittedly doing his best to fight the corruption wildfire, with another call to run from Su nearly every other day. Each day, he softens his stance a bit more.
In a surprisingly candid tone, a jilted DPP mayoral hopeful recently described the situation that Hsieh faces - he’s the best man to lose. Hsieh knows this and is more interested in the elections back at home in 高雄 Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong), where he’s bucking the party yet again.
I’ve been critical of Hsieh before for his docility and lack of self-interest, but I’m actually starting to feel sorry for him now. Hsieh spent less than a year in the premiership because he wasn’t able to own the role of hatchet-man for Chen, and yet also didn’t have the backbone to stand up the overbearing president.
Back when KMT chairman 馬英九 Ma Ying-jeou was visiting Harvard, Hsieh looked respectable by standing up to Ma. He completely lost all of that momentum on his return to Taiwan, and this foot-dragging over the mayoral race is killing his image. Clearly Hsieh doesn’t know what to do with himself; his political instincts tell him that he should stay the hell out of the race, but his masochistic side wants him to be a martyr and take one for the party. At this rate, the best that Hsieh will be able to hope for is the charity of a vice-presidential spot on someone else’s ticket.
Former 謝長廷 Premier Frank Hsieh has been the expected candidate since nearly the beginning. The problem is that Hsieh keeps saying over and over that he does’t want it. The pressure is on from ROC Premier 蘇貞昌 Su Tseng-chan, who is admittedly doing his best to fight the corruption wildfire, with another call to run from Su nearly every other day. Each day, he softens his stance a bit more.
In a surprisingly candid tone, a jilted DPP mayoral hopeful recently described the situation that Hsieh faces - he’s the best man to lose. Hsieh knows this and is more interested in the elections back at home in 高雄 Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong), where he’s bucking the party yet again.
I’ve been critical of Hsieh before for his docility and lack of self-interest, but I’m actually starting to feel sorry for him now. Hsieh spent less than a year in the premiership because he wasn’t able to own the role of hatchet-man for Chen, and yet also didn’t have the backbone to stand up the overbearing president.
Back when KMT chairman 馬英九 Ma Ying-jeou was visiting Harvard, Hsieh looked respectable by standing up to Ma. He completely lost all of that momentum on his return to Taiwan, and this foot-dragging over the mayoral race is killing his image. Clearly Hsieh doesn’t know what to do with himself; his political instincts tell him that he should stay the hell out of the race, but his masochistic side wants him to be a martyr and take one for the party. At this rate, the best that Hsieh will be able to hope for is the charity of a vice-presidential spot on someone else’s ticket.
posted by Taiwan's Other Side at 10:07 PM
3 Comments:
Yep, Hsieh is officially running. Sweet burden my...
Poor Hsieh. He seems like the nicest of the Old Guard. I'm really surprised he's going to run... right into the headlights of a big blue truck. It looks like sure suicide.
Keep up the posts. There aren't enough blues. It seems that everybody from the West still thinks the DPP is pro-democracy.
sky2evan, your observation regarding Taiwan's color spectrum is all too true. Pardon my cryptic writing, but I'm a cagey sort of person.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home