Enter Your Commentanyone regard or identify himself as so-called taiwanese, will be ridiculous logic,or actully extrememly selfish on the title of human being! let alone so-called DPP,ABSOLUTE HOOLIGANISM!
It Was the Economy, Stupid
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At a Ma appearance in Taipei, Luo She-mei, 38, said she'd voted for Chen's DPP in 2000, but this time would vote for Ma. "Our salaries haven't gone up, and there are fewer jobs," said Luo. "I think there should be a change of parties—we should give the KMT an opportunity."
Ma's economic plan promises Taiwanese relief. It features ambitious economic openings to China, including more Chinese tourists and investment allowed into Taiwan, and direct cross-strait flights. He even envisions a possible cross-strait common market.
In the last weeks of the campaign, Hsieh tried to scare voters on that issue, saying that what he termed Ma's "one-China market" could lead to a flood of Chinese laborers and cheap, poor-quality Chinese products into Taiwan. Voters didn't buy that—in part because Ma insisted he would not allow in Chinese laborers or agricultural products.
Meanwhile, Ma enjoys widespread admiration for what supporters say is a clean, upright character. That was a key selling point after corruption scandals that have dogged the ruling DPP in recent years.
Though himself a product of the KMT authoritarian machine that ruled Taiwan for more than 50 years, his supporters insist he now represents a "new KMT." Ma is committed to democracy and it's impossible for the party to return to its corrupt, authoritarian past, they say. "Today's KMT isn't the same," said Lin Jing-chong, 53, after voting for Ma in a Taipei suburb. "And if Ma doesn't do a good job, we'll change again in four years."
Ma has reassured pro-independence or pro-status quo Taiwanese by ruling out unification with China, and by saying Taiwan's fate must be decided only by its 23 million people. He won over some native Taiwanese by spending months with Southerners in the lead-up to the election—staying overnight in their homes, and joining them on their farms and fishing boats.
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