Editorial: Arrogant candidates need not apply

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

 3063 Edition
November 8~14, 2010

Editorial

Editorial: Arrogant candidates need not apply

Translated by Lydia Ma

The recent US midterm elections was a blow to the Obama 
administration when American voters used their votes to voice their 
displeasure at the past two years of high unemployment and economic 
downturn. Voters gave the House of Representatives back to the 
Republicans. The Obama administration will henceforth face an uphill 
battle in pushing its policies through.

During a question and answer session in India with local students, 
President Obama said the beauty of a democracy is that the people 
have the right, duty, and responsibility to voice displeasure over 
government performance. He also admitted results of US midterm 
elections had forced him to consider “midcourse corrections” to his 
agenda.

After saying that, Obama was quick to add that perhaps the sluggish 
economy wasn't his fault and his health care reform initiatives were 
plagued by special interest groups. He said he personally believed 
his policies were on the right track, they just weren't pushed 
through fast enough. This remark prompted some journalists to comment 
sarcastically that the President “felt pretty good about himself” 
when all is said and done.

When it comes to “feeling pretty good about myself”, politicians 
often capture this best with rhetoric that carry undertones of 
“whatever it is, I didn't do it”, or “the policy making was right, 
the policy implementation had a minor glitch”, or worse, “I 
accomplished a lot – I just failed to publicize it loud enough.”

We find that the “feeling pretty good about myself” syndrome is very 
descriptive of the Ma administration. The biggest difference between 
President Obama and President Ma is that one was quick to acknowledge 
shortcomings of his administration and reach across party lines while 
the other was quick to lay the blame on the previous administration 
for its problems.

During his presidential campaign 2 years ago, President Ma 
confidently touted “Total governance, total responsibility” as his 
modus operandi, but his recent rhetoric as he campaigned for KMT 
members and faced his own midterm election sounded more like “KMT 
total governance, DPP total responsibility” - to the disillusionment 
of Taiwanese voters.

Judging from recent developments in the two special municipalities up 
north – Taipei and Sinbei – it's obvious that most residents there 
are dissatisfied with the KMT. To salvage KMT's declining dominance 
in the region, the Ma administration has been taking advantage of its 
position as the party in power to shell out public funds and 
resources in hopes of swaying voters and assuaging their discontent.

We are neither asking nor looking for perfect candidates here, only 
national leaders mature enough to be humble, humble enough to confess 
their failures, and willing enough to learn from their mistakes. We 
are looking for leaders who, when confronted with their own failings, 
are able to say as King David said to the prophet Nathan, “I have 
sinned against God” and then do something to prove their repentance 
is genuine.

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