Internal fights must not distract DPP
By Paul Lin 林保華
The three Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential primary candidates recently took part in a political debate, which was subject to further scrutiny in an opinion poll about the candidates’ performances. These were internal debates, and where there is debate there are necessarily differences of opinion, which is not a problem as long as the opinions are substantiated by fact. Also, the three candidates are from the same camp, necessitating a certain amount of self-restraint in the debate. Green camp voters are now more discerning and sophisticated, and they are aware of the influence that their votes have in restraining the behavior of politicians.
Although one shouldn’t necessarily support only one candidate, neither should one support all three. Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良), for example, has very different political views from DPP presidential hopefuls Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Hsu has two major components to his policy: cross-strait relations — large-scale investment in and engagement with China — and social justice, centered on assisting disadvantaged groups and addressing wealth disparity. Surely Hsu is smart enough to realize these two policies are incompatible.
Although Taiwanese businesses have been quite conservative about investing in China, we are already seeing a huge decrease in government tax revenue, higher unemployment and a growing poverty gap. Can Taiwan really take much more of this increased investment and enagagement?
