Editorial: Two thumbs up for the new election culture

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3066 Edition

November 29~December 5, 2010

Editorial

Editorial: Two thumbs up for the new election culture

Translated by Lydia Ma

The 5 Special Municipality Election is finally over and we can 
rejoice in seeing the efforts of many Taiwanese pro-democracy 
advocates finally pay off.

Even though the election campaign was marred by the last-minute 
shooting of Sean Lien, son of former Vice-President Lien Chan, the 
night before election day, we’ve seen breakthroughs in DPP campaign 
strategies. Not only did the party try to help citizens understand 
its platform, it also refrained from attacking KMT opponents. This 
change of atmosphere is a positive step in the development of 
Taiwanese election culture.

On the flip side, we’ve also witnessed how mere “informational 
accuracy” and “human rights advocacy” isn’t enough to make things 
right when there is an obvious imbalance in the degree of access to 
information that political parties and media outlets receive.

A biased media that favors a certain party coupled with the 
technological edge it possesses and a celebrity’s face, will 
oftentimes deliberately feed the public inaccurate information 
resulting in the violation of the public’s rights to know the truth 
and impair the public’s ability to think critically – especially when 
the issue is about a party, a candidate, or a fringe person

Therefore, fighting for human rights and informational accuracy is a 
goal we must continue pressing toward on this road to full 
democratization. Perhaps we won’t see significant improvements in the 
near future because personal and social values are shaped over a long 
period of time. But this year’s campaign sure deserves our two thumbs 
up.

If we merely focus on the “results” of this year’s election – who won 
or who lost – and forget that, more importantly, the process ought to 
reflect human rights and justice, then, free elections will not 
improve Taiwanese society. It may merely cause division and fighting 
over and over again.

But we are confident that as long as our governments and political 
parties are willing to side with Taiwan and commit themselves to 
making Taiwan better, we can continue to work together in improving 
the current election culture.  

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