dpp newsletter feb2012
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8/2/2019 DPP Newsletter Feb2012
1/8
FEBRUARY 2012
PAGE 1
Chair Tsai Ing-wen steps down, KaohsiungMayor Chen Chu becomes acting chair
DEMOCRACY & PROGRESS
On Feb. 29, Chair Tsai Ing-wen stepped down as
party chair, but a ceremony was also held to wel-
come Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu as acting chair.Below are remarks by Chair Tsai Ing-wen and Act-
ing Chair Chen Chu.
Chair Tsai Ing-wens Farewell Speech
Today is my last Central Standing Committee
Meeting as DPP chair, and it is also time for me to
bid farewell. Normally, this process comes easily
for me, but at this moment, I realize that it is
harder than I thought because we have spent so
much time in the fight together.
In these past four years, I have transformed
from being a scholar and a government official to
party chair. Firstly, I would like to offer my deep-est gratitude for giving me your embrace, trust,
support and encouragement in these past four
years. Although I know that sometimes I may have
appeared stubborn or more insistent on some is-
sues, I really would like to thank you for tolerating
me, especially to my colleagues seated here today,
who with even more extensive political experi-
ence, have allowed me to engage in my own way
of conducting politics. Working with you is a life-
times honor and pride.
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I would like to once again give my deepest
apologies to the Central Standing Committee and
to our supporters. It is the greatest regret of my
life not being able to lead this party back into
power. Recalling my first Central Standing Com-mittee as party chair, I kept reminding myself that
no matter what, I had to lead this party into stand-
ing back on its feet again. For the last four years,
from frustrations and setbacks, we have walked
towards the light, and this journey for me is some-
thing that I will never forget in my lifetime.
Many times I have said before and I would like
to repeat it here today: even if I am no longer the
party chair, I will continue to be a lifetime mem-
ber of the party, standing by the DPP in guardingthis piece of land and in pursuing fairness and jus-
tice.
I understand that many of you are concerned
about my next steps, but in reality, my view to-
wards this is quite simple. Becoming the person
that I am today stems from the opportunity
granted to me by the public, and with this, I carry
with me an accumulation of societal assets. There-
fore, my future involves returning these societal
assets to Taiwan. Without the role of party chair, Iwill use my identity as a civilian to cross any po-
litical boundaries and exert even more passion to
view, listen, stay in touch - and from a different
position and perspective - catch on with the pub-
lic. Later on, I will return what I learned from this
experience to assist the DPP in expanding its base.
Even by leaving the party chair position, I willnot forget my mission, which is to find the power
of change for Taiwan. Taiwan has gone through a
period of authoritarianism and inclination to con-
servatism, and it must break itself from the past
and detach its emotions to bravely face change
and to courageously move forward.
I am willing to exert all my energy and devote
myself to public welfare. To all public interest
groups that need assistance in promotion and en-
dorsement of public issues, please do not hesitateto contact my office. Naturally, the remaining fi-
nancial contributions of the presidential campaign
must be spent on the public. I will use these funds
properly and apply them for public interests, and I
will transform their contributions into a consolida-
tion of power towards public welfare uses.
I also wish to embark on finding the more than
6 million people who voted for me and supported
the DPP as well as those who wanted to give me
their vote. I want to personally give them thanksand to offer my apologies.
I understand that festivities do not last forever,
and today marks the
ending of a personal
period in my life.
Nevertheless, this
represents a new be-
ginning for the entire
DPP, and I have faith
that under the lead-ership of Acting
Chair and Mayor
Chen Chu, society
will be able to see
our self-reflection
and our never-
yielding toughness. I
also have faith that
with a DPP that is
undergoing changes,Mayor Chen Chu
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will steer a stable hand and play
a role in establishing continuity
and lay a foundation for the
DPPs next phase of develop-
ment.Lastly, I leave with the words
of Samuel Huntington from his
book, The Third Wave:History
does not advance in a straight
forward fashion, but with a
leaders wisdom and determina-
tion, history will move for-
ward. The leader I mention
here is not in the form of a per-
son, but in the form of our party.We must have faith in the values that we repre-
sent, and we must believe in our responsibility to
protect Taiwan. We must believe we are capable of
making Taiwan better, and we must have faith that
we can bring a fairer and more justified society.
What is most important is that we must have faith
that the DPP will be a leading power in moving
history forward.
Goodbye my friends, goodbye DPP! Thank you!
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Following Chair Tsai Ing-wens footsteps as an
acting chair will not be an easy task. I have beenan old soldier and one of the DPPs 18 founding
members, and I must say that the road has been
full of twists and turns with non-stopping ups and
downs. However, even under difficult circum-
stances, the DPP has been able to thrive and ma-
ture, touching the people and gain-
ing their support, but we have also
seen their disappointment and
frustration. Here today, I would
like to give my deepest apprecia-tion to Chair Tsai Ing-wen for her
willingness to shoulder the DPPs
good and bad times and for lead-
ing the party through unstable
times.
I had initially rejected the posi-
tion of the acting chair due to the
challenging tasks of administering
Kaohsiung. Especially, after the
merging of city and county,
Greater Kaohsi-ung is now even
bigger than Tokyo
City, and there are
many challenging
tasks to resolve.
However, with the
persuasion of
many colleagues, I
have decided to
become the DPPsacting chair in or-
der to play the
role of stabilizing
the party, welcom-
ing the next chair
and to assist the
DPP out of its dif-
ficult times. I also
hope to lead the party into allowing an opportunity
for reflection after Chair Tsai Ing-wens responsi-ble resignation so that the DPP, from its frustra-
tion, be able to stand up once again.
In these three months as acting chair, I promise
to pave the road for the DPPs non-stopping re-
form as well as continuing the upgrade and pro-
Acting Chair Chen Chus Acceptance Speech
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gressive efforts started by Chair Tsai Ing-wen. I
believe that the DPP is an open and democratic
party that listens to many different voices. These
voices represent a form of democratic develop-
ment, and they should always be heard and re-
spected. I plan to create a party reform committee
that will implement improvements in party or-
ganization and policy in order for the next chair to
employ as reference.From the DPP perspective, it is important to be
in power, but it is even more important to con-
vince the Taiwanese people why it is important to
be in office. The DPP must lay out its values and
its plans to make a better and fairer Taiwan. I urge
all my party colleagues to help me in re-finding
the partys original ideals, which are even more
important than technical election strategies. As
long as we are able to show our sincerity and care
for Taiwan, I definitely believe that we will beable to touch Taiwanese society. We will let eve-
ryone feel that the DPP is part of the public and
gain their support in order for the DPP to carry on
with even greater strength.
Facing the immediate situation and challenges,
the DPP must adopt a pragmatic approach to con-
front these issues. Even though the process might
appear slow-moving, it is something that cannot
be done at once and it needs gradual steps. We
must use our sincerity to form a consensus within
the party and persuade our
community to join-in on the
project. The DPP has a respon-
sibility to Taiwan, and we must
not loose our spirit of reform asa result of setbacks. We must
continue promoting the DPPs
core values.
The meaning of sustenance
for the DPP must not be to win
the 2016 elections, bur rather,
it must be our promise to make
Taiwan better. To gain office
represents only a necessary
step, but we must not loose our
ideals in order to gain power.
Perhaps the process will be challenging, but I be-
lieve this difficulty will not surpass the hardships
faced when the party was founded. I hope that we
keep our love and sincerity and I promise a fair
and beautiful Taiwan.
In the next elections within the party, I plan to
execute party affairs smoothly, and I will ensure
that the power transfer process is transparent, open
and steady. In order to maintain party unity and
harmony, I hope that the Secretary-General, direc-
tors and staff remain by my side to continue exert-
ing all their efforts in handling party affairs.
Lastly, I wish to convey to you how the DPP is
a democratic and diverse political party. In regards
to the outside world denouncing our factional
problems, I believe that this is a normal phenome-
non, but it is important to understand that there is
no single factional interest capable of overriding
the interests of the entire party. Watching forty
years of ups and downs in Taiwan, I have also
along the way watched the DPP stumble. At this
moment, I have personally decided to shoulder the
responsibility to express my love for the DPP and
my passion for Taiwan, and I hope to count on all
our party colleagues to believe in the DPP.
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DPP produces Self-Reflection Report
At the Central Standing Committee of Feb. 22,
the committee approved the 2012 Self-Reflection
Report, which highlights key areas that posed a
challenge for the DPP in the past election, provid-
ing some key strategies to combat these chal-
lenges.
The main issues highlighted in the report were:
1. Enhancement of the DPPs Governing Capa-
bilities
Using its presence in the legislature and gov-
erning counties, the DPP must set out to upgrade
the trust of the people towards its governing capa-
bilities. In addition, the DPP must engaging in the
training of future leaders and gathering voter asso-
ciation to the party. One of the main reasons for
the 2012 election loss can be attributed to conse-
quent decision shifts by undecided voters and the
lack of adequate support from urban middle class
voters. In regards to the basic support, the DPP, as
a small party, lagged behind the KMT, and this
represented the crucial victory barrier.
The legislature represents the most important
policy platform for opposition parties. In the fu-
ture, the party headquarters and the legislative
caucus must enhance its policy standpoints and
lead the country in domestic issues. The DPP must
engage in large-scale dialogue with the public
starting from its basic foundation, fulfilling theneeds of voters. In regards to DPP governing
counties, the leadership must emphasize quality
governance. In order to enhance the partys local
image, DPP leaders must play the role in empha-
sizing Green Governance by promoting the ad-
vantages of its policies.
2. Confronting the China Factor in Elections
In confronting the economic threats created by
China, the DPP must develop a cross strait strat-egy that is capable of gathering domestic consen-
sus. The DPP must issue a policy that can con-
vince the people not to rely on economic interfer-
ence, but at the same time, it must ensure the
safety net of economic livelihood. Additionally,
the DPP must remove the stereotype of being a
party that is protectionist and anti-China.
The China Factor indeed played a powerful
force into these past elections. However, the for-
mer issues of national identification and unifi-
cation and independence were transformed into
economic topics. The main challenge for the
DPP lies in confronting Chinas interference into
the election by facing that Chinas strategy has
already been changed, and that Chinese involve-
ment has not only turned to be meticulous, but its
influence has also become comprehensive. Espe-
cially, China has used the factor of Taiwans eco-
nomic reliance on China to turn cross strait politi-
cal issues into economic topics, although this
has not caused a direct effect into the high degree
of national identification by the Taiwanese public.
In future elections, the China factor is bound to
be sustained and enhanced. In this regard, the Tai-
wanese public will continue to have doubts, but
they will still feel there is a lack of specific op-
tions. For this reason, the DPP must continue to
persist on its standpoints and play the role of con-
solidating Taiwans sovereignty and economic in-
dependence. Furthermore, the DPP strategy must
be careful, moderate and flexible in order to pro-vide policy options that do not fall into depend-
ence on Chinas economy and that provides more
reassuring choices for economic livelihood.
On the other hand, while emphasizing a moder-
ate and flexible approach to cross strait policy, the
DPP must not rule out contacts with China. How-
ever, in practice, the DPP must engage in specific
actions to strengthen this position and to narrow
the gap between the publics view of image and
policy standpoints towards the DPP. In the future,the DPP must conduct deeper research regarding
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the changes of Chinas strategies towards Taiwan,
and it must engage in exchanges to remove the
anti-China and isolationists stereotypes.
3. Dissolving Election Scrutiny
Facing the problem of election scrutiny, the
DPP must come up with a positive breakthrough
that lays out the political foundation at the grass-
roots level. This must be implemented by deeply
enhancing representation in areas disadvantageous
to the DPP. The DPP must implement the strategy
of upward integration starting from the local base
to the central headquarters.
From observing the results of the last elections,the crucial challenge for the DPP lies on trans-
forming the disadvantage of the DPP in the north-
ern areas, currently experiencing large population
growth. The DPP has only presence in areas that
are facing outward mobilization. Therefore, the
DPP must lay out a strategy to increase support in
growing areas in order to decrease its disparity
with the KMT.
Since the change of single district representa-
tion in the legislature, there has been an increaseof areas with less DPP representation, and this has
posed to be the greatest challenge for the party.
Without adequate official representation, the party
has found greater difficulties to service the public,
thus creating a vicious cycle that must be resolved.
In order to lessen the DPPs disadvantages, the
party must enhance services through the constitu-
ency of legislators and assign disadvantaged dis-
tricts to at-large legislators. In order to strengthen
party organization, the DPP must extensively set-up service branches in towns and municipalities
and consolidate its public and party officials to
better provide services to the public.
In order to prepare for the 2014 Seven-in-One
Elections, the party must develop comprehensive
countermeasures as soon as possible by carrying-
out the endorsement process earlier so that candi-
dates can establish their presence in localities and
create an upward integration starting from the lo-
cal base towards the central headquarters. The
training of personnel at all levels is essential, such
as running a campaign and strengthening the links
with various associations. Furthermore, the partyheadquarters must strengthen its election research
capabilities in order to produce more professional
and objective experts.
Despite the fact that the DPP enlarged its pres-
ence during the last election to combat election
scrutiny, the results showed that it lacked effec-
tiveness. In the future, the party must establish an
even more rigorous system and train greater per-
sonnel to monitor election scrutiny.
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Dalai Lama sends letter to Chair Tsai Ing-wen, congratu-lates DPP for strengthening Taiwans democratization
On February 22nd, Chair Tsai Ing-wen welcomed a
visit by the Chairman of the Tibet Religious Founda-
tion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mr. Dawa Tser-
ing. During the visit, Mr. Dawa Tsering brought a
letter sent by the Dalai Lama dated January 16,
where he expressed admiration for Chair Tsais ro-
bust participation in the recently-held elections. The Dalai Lama, in his letter, expressed thatwhile winning and losing is part of the democratic
process he commended Chair Tsai for becoming an
inspiration to many people as a democratic model. The Dalai Lama further wrote in his letter that hewished to applaud Chair Tsai and the partys role instrengthening the democratization of Taiwan and the
grace with which you acknowledged the electoral
result. During the visit, Chair Tsai expressed concern forthe recent violence in Tibet that has led to many
cases of self-immolation. Showing the DPPs support for the people of Ti-bet, the DPP has issued the following statement:
1. Even though His Holiness the Dalai Lama is
no longer playing a role in politics, with his
identity as a religious leader, he has continued
to show concern for the universal value of hu-
man rights. The DPP expresses great admira-tion to His Holiness, and expresses its grati-
tude for his long-term concern for Taiwans
democracy, especially during his recent visit to
care for the Taiwanese people in the natural
disaster crisis.
2. The DPP has long held onto the belief of re-
spect for human rights and democracy, and
whether in power or in opposition, we must
defend these values. Especially, we request
that these values are included when interacting
with China.
3. As the largest opposition party in Taiwan, we
urge the Ma Administration to refrain from
remaining silent
regarding Chinas
democracy and
human rights. We
further urge for
the Ma Admin-
istration to speak
courageously andcondemn Chinas
crackdown on Ti-
bet as well as
show active con-
cern to the human
rights issue of Ti-
bet and the demo-
cratic develop-
ment of China.
DEMOCRACY &
PROGRESS
PUBLISHED BY:
Department of InternationalAffairs DemocraticProgressive Party
9F, No. 30, Pei-Ping East
Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: 886-2-2392-9989 ext. 306
Fax: 886-2-2393-0342
Email: foreign@dpp.org.tw
Website:
http://www.dpp.org.tw
http://www.dpp.org.tw/mailto:foreign@dpp.org.twmailto:foreign@dpp.org.twhttp://www.dpp.org.tw/http://www.dpp.org.tw/mailto:foreign@dpp.org.twmailto:foreign@dpp.org.tw
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