EDITORIAL: Chiang’s ship is taking on water

With the Taipei mayoral election quickly heating up, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) campaign team has finally started to get serious this month, but a major mudslinging initiative and several sloppy mistakes have drawn a larger wave of public criticism, while sporadic municipal issues continue to crop up, raising concerns about whether the city government’s wheels are coming off.

Just a few months ago, Chiang of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was widely expected to win handily in Taipei, traditionally a political stronghold for the KMT and with no major third-party candidates this year. KMT supporters regarded him as a frontrunner to become a presidential candidate, and they had high hopes that other KMT candidates running for office could ride his coattails to victory, not just in Taipei, but across the country.

However, his main challenger, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈柏洋), has rapidly gained ground with his unconventional campaign style, becoming a media sensation, a phenomenom named the “Ocean Wave” by Shen’s supporters. The nation’s election spotlight has quickly turned to Taipei, catching Chiang off-guard, with his performance being scrutinized by a nationwide audience.

Taipei City Government departments have had their fumbled handling of many municipal issues in the past few months questioned, including child protection, food safety and infrastructure construction, as well as being suspected of giving preferential treatment to the mayor’s family. Yet Chiang continued to reply to questions evasively, either blaming the central government or giving vague answers such as “the city government is addressing the issue.”

Opinion polls, even from generally pro-KMT organizations, show Shen’s approval rating quickly catching up to Chiang’s, with only a single-digit percentage point gap remaining. Chiang’s campaign has had to shore up its defenses as it shifts tactics from ignoring Shen to aggressive mudslinging, in an attempt to reclaim the narrative and reproduce the successful outcome of his negative 2022 campaigning.

The first sign of Chiang’s shifting tactics was when the campaign announced on Oct. 2 that five of the KMT’s Taipei legislators would become spokespersons. Among them are Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), known for their combative partisan politics. They launched their first “attack” the next day, quoting an article Shen wrote 12 years ago, and misleadingly accusing him of advocating the “decriminalization of illicit drug use” and “giving out drugs in communities.”

Shen quickly clarified that his article was discussing drug prevention policies in many countries, including Taiwan. Chiang and his team continued to try to misrepresent Shen’s stance, in hopes of stirring hostility and public anxiety, as he did in 2022 by distorting and criticizing the government’s COVID-19 response measures, although he had supported many of them himself as a legislator.

It backfired, offending people across a swathe of professions, as health providers, disease-prevention officials, social workers, and firefighters and paramedics voiced their contempt and concern that the vilification of the drug harm reduction programs by Chiang’s campaign would disrupt an effective, evidence-backed public health policy. Chiang’s Facebook post about Shen’s drug stance triggered a record-breaking backlash, garnering more than 400,000 mostly negative comments in less than a day.

Chiang does not seem eager to face the challenge head-on, declining or delaying some interview requests. Although he had resisted Shen’s calls for a public debate, the pair last week agreed to a televised debate on drug policy. In an interview on Friday, Chiang said some voters were “so irrational” during last year’s recall campaign. Later that same day, amid criticism, he said that “one must be humble before the will of the people” and that he respected voters’ judgement.

Meanwhile, Chiang’s campaign and the city government are being criticized for a series of issues, from allegations of misuse of city resources for election ads to continued food poisoning issues in schools and city agencies releasing error-ridden artificial-intelligence-generated materials.

With less than 50 days until the elections, Chiang’s team needs to sail straight, but the continually sloppy and lax attitude of the city government has many residents wondering if Chiang is even competent enough to steer the loose ship he is tasked with leading.