Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A man casts his ballot at a voting station at a temple in Tainan’s second electoral district in yesterday’s legislative by-election.
Photo: Yang Chin-cheng, Taipei Times

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday retained two legislative seats, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost one of the two seats it previously held in legislative by-elections held in four cities and counties.

The nationwide local elections on Nov. 24 last year saw major losses for Taiwan’s pro-independence parties. One of the reasons for this setback is that some voters fell for then-Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) promise that they would get rich if he became mayor. Some of those people already regret voting for him.

Why did voters fall for Han’s promises so easily? Some observers put it down to a Taiwanese tendency to “love money and fear death.” These words were originally spoken by Shinpei Goto, who served as head of civilian affairs under the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan from 1898 to 1906.