First day of 2016, fifteen days before voting day. The past
few months flew by in a flash, and so many things has happened. It’s been
eighteen months since I dived in headfirst, from the comfort of the ivory
tower, into the trenches of real life politics. Like the previous two years,
this year has also been one of the most eventful, yet most trying, years of my
life. As a rookie, I come to realize, surviving in politics not only requires tremendous
interpersonal skills, as one not only has to deal with the political opposition
and garner the needed support, one also has to acquire, even more hurriedly,
the adeptness to deal with those who are on one’s own team. Politics, after all,
is exactly what Harold Lasswell defined it as, “Who gets what, when and how”.
As the readers of the Participant Observer might already have
noticed, the blog entries this year slowed down tremendously, as I became
deeply entrenched in the daily grind of a political campaign. I still hold my director of research position at my think tank; however, there were little time to conduct my own research. I still pay a lot of attention to social movements in Taiwan, which frequency has also dwindled greatly in the past year.
In addition, while there are so much to report on and write
about on the issues driving the social movement in Taiwan, much of what I deal
with on my current post, has to be kept in private. I am constantly reminded of
what my mentor, professor and former boss told me, that “in diplomacy, there
are many things you’ll just to take it to your grave”.
Being in politics requires psychological strength and physical
endurance. Politics is 24-7, and the response time when crisis arise often has
to be within an hour. Once one is involved in it, it permeates almost all
aspects of one’s life. In order to be successful in politics, one not only has
to learn it, live it; one also has to love it. I currently have a love-hate
relationship with politics.
My decision to join Dr. Tsai Ing-wen’s foreign affairs team stemmed
from the desire to obtain some real life political experience. As academics, we
are often caught up in data gathering, research and the efforts to derive some
sort of generalizable theory on political occurrences. I thought, the practice
of politics ultimately helps me acquire the experience I would not have had if
I reside myself in academia and assist me in providing even more accurate and more
comprehensive analyses in the future. Furthermore, I recognize not everyone can
be an eternal protester or activist. There is the need for one to enter the
system and change from within. I was offered the precious opportunity by Dr.
Tsai, and I obliged.
Recounting what happened in the past year, the most
memorable event would have to be Dr. Tsai’s trip to the United States. I cannot
begin to recount the amount of preparation, communication and efforts behind
closed door for this particular trip to come to fruition – many details, of course, cannot be publicized. It
was also physically taxing on everyone involved. The craziest stretch was when
we covered four cities in 14 hours (Washington DC, New York City, Houston and
San Francisco). I discovered on this
trip, that a person, when running on adrenaline, can go without sleep
for a long time. I also learn to
appreciate the hard work journalists put in to able to cover and present the
news in a timely manner for the readers and viewers. Hat tips to all the
hardworking reporters who went on the trip with us.
Another challenging aspect of my work involved in drafting
English speeches for Dr. Tsai. As a lawyer, professor and a perfectionist, Dr.
Tsai reads over every draft very closely, diligently and provides modification
and corrections. Writing speeches for
her also forced me to learn about fields that are otherwise not my field of
expertise, from energy, technology, business, immigration, public welfare to agriculture.
I would say, this is one of the most fruitful aspect of the job.
More excitingly, my involvement with the DPP allowed me to
become a member of the human rights committee and the chairperson of the women’s
rights working group for Liberal International, the international organization where
the Democratic Progressive Party is a member. Working on promoting aspects of
human rights in the international arena is something I enjoy tremendously and
am very proud of. In the past year, I met
so many interesting individuals, from government officials and former
government officials from all over the world, to members of influential think
tanks, academics, members of different political parties and activists from
around the world. With these connections, I see remarkable potential for Taiwan
to cooperate with countries, NGOs and political parties on assisting and
promoting Taiwan’s shared interests and values.
In the past year, at the International Affairs Department of
the DPP, we began constituting frameworks emphasizing city-to-city, youth, environmental,
digital diplomacy, along with a refreshed version of a southbound policy, humanitarian
assistance and global NGO cooperation – particle issues where Taiwan already
possessed remarkable knowledge, experience and has previously been engaging the
world and providing substantive contribution to. Hopefully, information we
garnered through the many meetings with local government representatives,
academics and members of the business and technological community, can be
useful for the future administration of Taiwan.
We are at the last stretch of the presidential campaign, and
we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I very much look
forward to the change, in both the presidency and hopefully, in the
legislature. If the DPP captures majority in the Legislative Yuan, it will be a
historic occasion, as the opposition has never been able to capture majority in
Taiwan’s democratic political history.
According to the
Taiwan Indicators Survey Research, as of December 31st, 2015, 40.1%
of the potential voters supported DPP’s Dr. Tsai and Dr. Chen. 17.5% of the
potential voters surveyed support KMT’s Eric Chu and Jennifer Wang, and 16.8%
supported James Soong and Hsu Hsin-Ying. There are nail-biting battlefields for
the legislative election, where the DPP is working industriously to capture
seats (Seats in districts such as Hualien, Pingtung, Chiayi, and New Taipei
City). So, we’ll just have to see.
Lastly, I wish my
readers a Happy New Year and productive 2016. I look forward to a even better
year and of course, a better Taiwan.
Stay tuned.
 |
| The press corp for the US Trip |
 |
| (Photo by Jessie Chen. Location: Houston, TX) |
 |
| Hardworking camera guys |
