Economy, not emotion, moves Taiwan

The man who turned 89 yesterday had earlier penned an endorsement in Taiwanese papers for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate. He made a personal appearance after consulting his doctors. He appealed to voters' sympathy, saying: “I don't have much time left. Please support Tsai ... Now, I put Taiwan's destiny in your hands.”

The DPP had again played the “bei qing” or “sorrow” card, which it had been wont to do in the past, but which was not apparent in this campaign until the last moment.

But it evidently did not sway many hearts, as incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) won by a better margin than expected, with 51.6 percent of the vote. Tsai got 45.6 percent, failing to expand DPP's support, as had been expected. The third candidate, James Soong, trailed with just 2.8 percent.

The result shows that Taiwanese voters are no longer swayed by the sympathy card. The DPP, after all, had its day in the sun as the ruling party from 2000 to 2008, after its long fight to overthrow the authoritarian rule of the KMT. Its political victims who went to jail for their beliefs, like Annette Lu and Chen Chu, have held or are now in power. Lu is a former vice president and Chen is the current mayor of Kaohsiung.

The result also shows a maturing of Taiwanese democracy. Since 1996, it has had five presidential elections and two power transitions in 2000 and 2008, when the KMT and DPP swapped power. With each election, the passion of Taiwanese voters has grown cooler, with turnout dipping to the lowest level of 74 percent this time.

More significantly, it appears that voters are less seized by emotive issues. Issues that used to galvanize voters, such as whether a candidate identifies with Taiwan as a nation, matter less to voters than core issues of jobs and stability.

This can be seen in the cool response to one of Tsai's earlier advertisements, which had her saying: “I am a Taiwanese.” This was to draw attention to Ma's links to the Chinese mainland — his parents came to Taiwan from China via Hong Kong after 1949. However, this ad was quickly dropped because it appeared to be putting people off. This is in contrast to 2004, when the DPP candidate Frank Hsieh attacked Ma fiercely on his non-native background, his being born in Hong Kong and his having held an American green card.

The KMT itself had played the “bei qing” card in the 2004 election when it was in opposition. Both its presidential and vice presidential candidates on separate occasions knelt and kissed the ground to show their loyalty to Taiwan and to win sympathy votes.

It is doubtful if such histrionic displays of emotion will win over voters now, especially swing voters without a strong affiliation to either party. Instead, the two main candidates, pragmatic technocrats, adopted a markedly low-key campaign style.

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