Taiwan has room for another political party

Well, what are we to do? He always start on that crap, and I can’t stand reading it. Lies, inaccuracies…

Back to topic:

There have been attempts on making a third force here, and they all fell flat on their faces. Moreover, if a third force party here actually got into the LY, they would have to learn to think fast. After all… they would be caught up in the Blue-green struggle very fast, and they would have to take a position on the cross strait issues.

Once those 2 things took place, they would end up in one of the 2 camps.

Moreover, if you look at the political pictures in say US, UK, or France, you will see that it’s a 2 camp game. You have the left against the right.

Taiwan is the same with the polarizing issues being statehood and China. No no way around that, I am afraid.

It’s true that Taiwan no longer has anything equivalent to a Workers Party or Labour Party. While the DPP originally took it on themselves to fulfil that role, it’s evident that they have all but abandoned it over the past four years, while none of the other parties comes anywhere near to presenting even the barest pretence of having ordinary working folk’s interests at heart.

Well, TSU might have a shot there???

Or, if a new party got started, then you could certainly change the political discourse.

After all, you could build a rather appealing platform by addressing concerns like:

  1. The loss of traditional industrial jobs.
  2. The lack of a viable social security net.
  3. The very basic workers rights here.
  4. The fact that education here actually costs money - and is crappy to boot.
  5. The lack of retraining of workers, so they can compete against the cheap competition from China.
  6. Corruption and the way it harms the common folks.
  7. The environment.

Then, you could get in with say 10% of the vote, and play the blues and greens off against each other, thus getting your program thru as the price for supporting one against the other.

Also, a new party could force the political discourse here to focus on the issues having a tangible impact on the life quality of the locals.

I don’t think adding another political party into ROC system will increase stability or focus the other major parties to adopt domestic issues on their platform.

How many political parties are there besides the four major ones?
Wouldn’t it be easier to have a faction with these 4 parties to carry domestic interest, then starting a whole new party.

[quote=“Mr He”]

  1. The loss of traditional industrial jobs.
  2. The lack of a viable social security net.
  3. The very basic workers rights here.
  4. The fact that education here actually costs money - and is crappy to boot.
  5. The lack of retraining of workers, so they can compete against the cheap competition from China.
  6. Corruption and the way it harms the common folks.
  7. The environment.

Also, a new party could force the political discourse here to focus on the issues having a tangible impact on the life quality of the locals.[/quote]

Totally agree on the worker’s rights issue. Every Taiwanese I know think the labor rights here stink, although I think it’s more the lack of enforcement of the existing rules. It’s definitely a left-wing party agenda though as you really wouldn’t get popular with the business people.

Education is also in desperate need of reform. The school days here are comparable to my grandparents’. Except longer. And I can’t say that I’ve met particularly many intelligent people in Taiwan. There is simply no correlation between the hours they spend studying and the results.

More and more Taiwanese are aware of the life in developed countries and wants it. They just need a party to vote on that will give them this. Of course… the new party would have to be neutral on the unification issue.

Anyone thinking that two parties is enough need to do the test at politicalcompass.org

?? Taiwan has two Labour parties, a Social Democratic Party and a Green Party. Unfortunately, these parties have next to no money, so they don’t stand a chance in the money-driven political system.

AC Dropout, yes–a split within an existing political party would probably meet with more success than a start-up. The pan-blues, however, have precious little left to split (and some of these are likely to defect to the DPP). That leaves a division within the DPP, which is plausible I guess. I often wonder whether the TSU could evolve to become the main opposition party…

Several people have mused about the possibility of a left-wing rather than right-wing new party. Unfortunately, I don’t think there would be much electoral support for this, especially once the budget problems they already have sink in and become an issue. The DPP is probably “as good as it gets” on things like worker rights, I’m afraid.

Apparently, a bigtime local gangster has decided he needs a party for himself. I don’t know much in the way of detail, but the guys name is White Wolf and he is such a big gangster that he feels the need for political processing.

But why a new party? Isn’t that what the KMT is for?

Why not a contest to hel[p him name his new party.

I suggest:

The KMTV Party.

Or KMB (Kuo Merecedes Benz)