As Taiwan heads into its Chinese New Year break, its leader has much to ponder.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/01
By Mark Weatherall and Huang Kai-ping, Taiwan Insight

Photo Credit: 中央社

For President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the shock win of the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in the mayoral election for Kaohsiung, a traditional stronghold of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), symbolized a disastrous night for the party and the president personally. The surprising success of Han Kuo-yu and other KMT candidates around the country can be partly attributed to the effective campaign tactics of KMT candidates, including a relentless focus on issues such as the economy and air pollution that impact ordinary people’s everyday lives. More fundamentally, they were an expression of widespread popular dissolution with the performance of Tsai’s government.

In fact, many of the domestic troubles faced by Tsai are little different from those faced by the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration. The structural issues facing the economy, including low wages, rising inequality, high property prices, and uneven development have been decades in the making. Policy mishaps in the face of public backlashes has been a constant feature of both the Ma and Tsai administrations. Ma’s popularity never recovered from rises in fuel and electricity prices. Tsai’s popularity plummeted only after 100 days in the position due to labor policy reform.

While policies had been justified for improving the overall welfare, lack of comprehensive and thoughtful policymaking has been a constant criticism faced by both governments. As a result, policy proposals have emerged only to be abandoned a few days later in the face of criticism in the media and complaints from the public. The most recent example included reports that the government was considering a rebate for low-income earners after tax revenues exceeded government predictions, only to be denied by the government a few days later.    [FULL  STORY]