To Rescue the KMT Eric Chu Must Think Like a Player

To Rescue the KMT Eric Chu Must Think Like a Player
China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
January 28, 2015

Executive Summary: The groundswell of support for Professor Ko has swept the island. Ruling and opposition party leaders are in danger of being marginalized. Eric Chu is probably in a tougher spot than Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai's political party after all, has just scored a major victory. She and the DPP may well return to power in 2016. This gives her more room to maneuver. Eric Chu's situation is different. The Kuomintang he inherited is experiencing a leadership crisis. Morale at the grassroots is non-existent. Chu has even made a tactical withdrawal. He has chosen not to run in 2016. But who else among the party elite is qualified to fight this battle?

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The groundswell of support for Professor Ko has swept the island. Ruling and opposition party leaders are in danger of being marginalized. Eric Chu is probably in a tougher spot than Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai's political party after all, has just scored a major victory. She and the DPP may well return to power in 2016. This gives her more room to maneuver. Eric Chu's situation is different. The Kuomintang he inherited is experiencing a leadership crisis. Morale at the grassroots is non-existent. Chu has even made a tactical withdrawal. He has chosen not to run in 2016. But who else among the party elite is qualified to fight this battle?

The groundswell of support for Professor Ko may provide some indicators. Chu should pay attention to the finer points behind the phenomenon. Professor Ko does have charisma. But he is reckless. He is hostile toward the wealthy political elites. He reflects the society's collective discontent over six years of Kuomintang rule. The KMT's policy path may be correct. But its political style is timid and conservative. Its leaders are indecisive. They try too hard to please everyone. They only wind up pleasing no one and alienating everyone. They try to display moderation. But they only wind up taking one step forward and two steps back. They clearly enjoyed a ruling majority. Yet they allowed themselves to be hijacked by a radical minority.

The people probably could not countenance this style of governance. Professor Ko is outspoken. He lacks political calculation. He refuse to present a pleasing image. Suddenly many people who were unhappy with the status quo, who were depressed and could find no outlet for their frustration found their answer. Professor Ko's mythology is a product of the times. This is the same thing that happened six years ago. People were fed up with Ah-Bian's style of governance, with his incitement of hatred. Ma Ying-jeou's moderate image suited the times. There is no enduring rule that one can follow. What matters the most important is the ability to read the writing on the wall.

In other words, Eric Chu must think like a “player”. He must not perpetuate the Kuomintang's current style of governance. He must not be timid and indecisive. His “cabinet system” must not remain distant from the public. Otherwise, in this rapidly changing era, he will swiftly be marginalized, if not elbowed aside entirely.

In recent years political stars have been swiftly replaced one after another. Once the page has been turned, there is no going back. The new generation of voters has no patience. It will not wait for you to sort things out. You say you are aiming for 2020. But if you have nothing to offer in 2016, no one will care what you have to offer in 2020.

Eric Chu must get back to basics. He must honestly assess his situation. The nine in one election debacle put the KMT in the hospital. Today the party is a critically ill patient in the intensive care unit. President Ma has a full year left in his term. But in fact his era has ended. The party elders have all retired. This is the first time the KMT has been in this situation since retreating to Taiwan. Meanwhile, grassroots party members have deserted. Blue camp supporter morale has hit rock bottom. Put bluntly, this is the most unfavorable the KMT's circumstances have been in decades. Could this be an unprecedented opportunity for Chu to remake the KMT? That is of course not the real question. The real question is how can he remake the KMT?

Our suggestion is that he must first of all cast aside the image of timidity and indecisiveness. He must set aside those issues that ordinary people simply do not understand. They include such issues as a cabinet system constitutional amendment. He must appeal to the grassroots. He must discover what the public really thinks. He must not blindly parrot the populist rhetoric of the cyber army. He must proceed according to political party evolution. He must remember that the KMT's traditional ideology of peoples livelihood began at the grassroots. He must remember that the party's original ideal was a society in which wealth was distributed equitably. In recent years, the party's policy has favored wealthy consortia. This widened the gap between rich and poor. Accumulated grievances have run deep, and ultimately led to the collapse of its support base. Therefore Eric Chu must think clearly. He must not allow a handful of political stars to play power games and engage in internecine warfare. The public has long ago tired of these antics.

Eric Chu must clearly state where the party stands. The KMT and DPP represent different ideologies and policy paths. Between the two, there is no room for ambiguity. The KMT must stand by its principles. It must affirm the righteousness of its stance. It must wage a forthright battle with the opposition. It must not permit the opposition to set the agenda or seize the bully pulpit. It must not allow itself to be hijacked by populist sentiment, only to end up with nothing. This is how President Ma came to his end. If you replicate his path, your fate will be even more tragic than his.

Finally, you must stop dodging cross-Strait issues. Dodging these issues will not win you any green camp supporters. It will only weaken cohesion within the blue camp. Cross-Strait relations have always been an asset for the KMT, not a burden, especially at this moment, when the DPP is complacent and hesitant about cross-Strait relations. You must seize the initiative and establish a new model for dialogue between Washington and Beijing. You have much room to maneuver on this issue. But you cannot afford to miss the opportunity. If you allow the opposition to hijack the issue, then the game will already be over.

社論－搶救國民黨 朱立倫需梟雄思維
2015年01月28日 04:10
本報訊

在柯P旋風鋪天蓋地的浪潮下，朝野兩黨的領袖似乎都有被邊緣化之虞。這中間朱立倫的處境恐怕比蔡英文還要更艱困，小英最起碼還領導一個剛獲得大勝的政黨，加上2016年重回執政的想像空間，讓她有更多的餘裕去布局；朱立倫則完全不同，他所接掌的國民黨，現階段根本是一個領導群潰散，基層士氣全面崩解的爛攤子，他縱然以退為進，放棄角逐2016，但放眼黨內剩餘菁英，他又能挺誰去打這場硬仗呢？

如果柯P的旋風可以提供若干啟示，那麼朱立倫或許應心領神會這背後的若干奧祕。是的，柯P有他的魅力，但這種率性直言、敵視權貴的特質，更多反映的其實是台灣集體社會心理的苦悶。執政6年多的國民黨，或許執政大方向是對的，但整個治理風格卻是溫吞保守、瞻前顧後的氣息，想討好所有人，最後弄得所有人都不領情，想表現溫良恭儉讓，結果什麼政策都是進一步退兩步，讓局面弄到明明是執政多數，卻硬生陷入被激進少數綁架的窘境。

也或許是這種治理氛圍讓人民悶得受不了，柯P這種直言不諱，沒有刻意政治算計，不願屈顏討好的形象，竟突然讓許多不滿現狀，鬱悶情緒得不到紓解的人們獲得釋放。不諱言說，柯P神話的塑造，其實更多是時代的產物。這正好像6年多前，當人們已經厭倦了阿扁激化對立的治理風格，馬英九的溫和形象得以適時崛起原因，這中間其實沒有什麼常規可循，最重要的是能否識讀出這中間微妙的變化。

換言之，朱立倫要有梟雄思維，假如他繼續複製國民黨目前的執政風格，還在處處謹言慎行，溫吞低調，機關算盡，成天盡扯些距離民眾遙遠的「內閣制」論調云云，那麼不客氣的說，在這個十倍速的年代中，甭說立即被邊緣化，立馬被淘汰出局都有可能。

這幾年政治菁英的消耗與替換難道還不夠快嗎？一頁翻過了就再翻不回來了，新世代的選民根本沒有什麼耐心等你慢慢布局，說什麼瞄準2020，如果2016都拿不出勇氣捨我其誰，2020又有誰會在乎你呢？

所以此刻的朱立倫，何妨就回歸基本面，誠實審度自己處境。沒錯，九合一的敗選，讓國民黨重傷到宛如送進加護病房急救重症患者，馬總統的任期還有一年多，但他的時代其實已經結束，黨內的公公老老也全數隱退，這是遷台後國民黨很少見的大人皆不管事的景況；另一方面，基層黨員大量流失，藍營支持者普遍士氣低落，講得直白一點，這是近十年來國民黨所面臨的最壞年代，但或許也是朱立倫重塑新國民黨最佳的歷史契機，只不過重點在於，他究竟要怎麼做！

我們的建議是，首先請拋掉那些優雅溫吞、瞻前顧後的身段，丟開那些尋常百姓根本搞不懂的議題（如內閣制修憲），真正走向草根，探問當下民間的實在心聲（絕不是盲從網軍的民粹），據以制定政黨發展的走向。要知道國民黨傳統民生主義的意識型態，本來就是從草根出發的，也本來就是要塑造均富社會理想的，只不過近幾年政策取向太過偏向財團，讓貧富差距日益擴大，民怨積累過深，終致支持基盤瓦解！所以，朱立倫得想清楚，千萬別再讓少數一二菁英閉著門玩權謀，成天搞鬥爭內耗，民眾對這些戲碼早就煩透了。

再者，朱立倫必須弄清楚政黨定位的區隔，國民黨與民進黨本來就代表著不同的意識型態與政策路線，這中間沒有任何混淆模糊的空間，國民黨必須堅持的理念，就應該理直氣壯，與在野黨光明正大的進行博弈，絕不能聽任在野黨為其設定話語權的框架，最後淪為民粹的俘虜，終至一事無成！馬總統就是這樣潰敗的，朱立倫如果還要持續複製，局面只會更壞。

最後，也寄語朱立倫別再閃躲兩岸議題，閃躲這個議題討好不了任何綠營的支持者，反而削弱了藍營的向心力！兩岸關係的現況與發展，從來就是國民黨的資產而不是包袱，特別是在此時此刻，民進黨還在兩岸議題故步自封且猶疑不定之際，朱立倫更該掌握發球權，在華府與北京之間打造一個新的對話模式，要知道在這個議題上，朱立倫的活動空間是很大的，但如果錯失了機遇，讓話語權被在野黨搶去，就什麼都不必提了！