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.
