Representatives for Taiwan’s three presidential candidates chose their “election numbers” last week. Tsai Ing-wen and Su Jia-chyuan of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket got number one. The Kuomintang (KMT) ticket of Ma Ying-jeou and Wu Den-yih drew number two while the People First Party’s (PFP) nominees James Soong and Lin Ruey-shiung ended up with number three.

While no one takes the numbers too seriously, staff members for the respective candidates did put their spin on the numerical selection, with DPP staffers claiming the number one represents Tsai becoming Taiwan’s first female president. The KMT team suggested their candidate’s number two symbolized President Ma will be re-elected to a second term. Staffers for the PFP offered an interpretation claiming that as this was their candidate’s third major election and “third time’s a charm.”

Tsai Ing-wen has a chance of winning the upcoming Jan. 14 poll and fulfilling her “number one” designation. President Ma also has a good chance of being re-elected. But of all the candidates, the number drawn by the PFP candidate James Soong seems most prescient as barring some sort of political miracle; Soong and his running mate will finish a very distant third.

Why is James Soong running for president? Several explanations have been offered but it’s often difficult to read the mind of this candidate. Perhaps the least likely reason for Soong’s candidacy is some secret pact to aid the DPP. While former President Lee Tung-hui did turn out to be a “pan-green” supporter, James Soong is a thoroughly dyed-in-the-wool defender of the Republic of China.

Born in China’s Hunan province in 1942 to an ROC career military officer, Soong’s family fled to Taiwan after the communist victory in 1949. James Soong’s loyalty to the Republic of China is well-established and in fact he is the only of the three presidential candidates to publicly advocate unification with the mainland, claiming it is mandated by the ROC Constitution.

Soong got within a hair’s breadth of winning the presidential election in 2000 after running as an independent, and he founded the PFP shortly after losing that year to the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian. As his power has waned in recent years, however, the KMT has at times treated its nominal ally in the so-called “pan-blue alliance” as an afterthought. It’s possible that James Soong decided to run in order to assert his party’s relevance and raise the PFP’s profile. The PFP may be hoping Soong’s candidacy will allow them to win more seats in the legislature and therefore secure a greater say at the “pan-blue” table.

Of course, there is the possibility that he genuinely believes there’s a chance people might flock to him at the last moment. Considering his trouncing in the 2006 Taipei mayoral election, in which Soong garnered 4 percent of the vote, any genuine expectation of victory might have to be considered delusionary. Opinion polls show the Soong/Lin ticket’s support rate at around 10 percent.

James Soong is respected by many who admire his long and distinguished career of service to the nation. His tenure as the governor of Taiwan Province in the 1990s won Soong many fans. He is considered by many to be both an honorable man and a capable politician. Soong has every right to run for president if he believes he should do so. However, with recent opinion polls showing a very tight race between the two leading candidates, James Soong’s supporters will soon be faced with a decision to either stick to their ideal candidate, or throw their support to either of the two main contenders. Those who generally identify with the “pan-blue” governing philosophy will need to think long and hard about whether they are willing to allow the opposition to come to power.

Back in 2000, some liberal-minded American voters accepted the premise that there was no difference between the two major political parties. Instead of voting for the Democratic nominee Al Gore, some decided to support political activist Ralph Nader. While it’s impossible to conclusively prove that Nader helped tilt the election in favor of the Republican candidate George W. Bush, considering how close the vote came that year, it is not a completely unreasonable assumption. Liberal Americans soon discovered that there is a difference between the governing philosophies of the two major U.S. parties and they spent eight years chafing under the Bush administration.

Elections do have consequences and while some may consider a candidate such as Ralph Nader or James Soong to be the “better man,” voters may need to think and act more strategically or be willing to accept the decent possibility that the opposition will come to power.

(The China Post (Taiwan))

(Asia News Network)