Faced with increasingly cutthroat competition,
the island's leading political parties have been
exploring ways to cultivate a favorable image.
But how well do their publicity campaigns
translate into votes at election time?
A large crowd, representing all age groups, mills around in he plaza outside an old temple. The atmosphere is jolly and raucous. On the temporary stage, young, self-styled "spice girls and cool boys" are singing and dancing their hearts out. What's this--a professional revue, or the latest pop group rehearsing? Actually, the performers are all members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and their aim is to lure passers-by into a political forum. Competition among Taiwan's political parties is heating up, and traditional ways of promoting a party's image no longer work. "Creativity is of vital importance when planning publicity campaigns, particularly when a party like ours has only a limited budget," says Yu Mei-mei(余莓莓), vice director of the DPP's Department of Culture and Information. "You have to use shock tactics. And what's good about that is that it doesn't cost much but it's very effective."
In an attempt to whip up recognition and support, the island's leading political parties, including the Kuomintang (KMT), DPP, and New Party (NP) have been making ever greater efforts to enhance their public images. The spin doctors are experimenting with many different kinds of promotion: Sentimental media ads, updated publicity materials, rallies and forums, and large-scale entertainments are all in vogue. No sector of society is left untargeted, but the greatest emphasis is placed on young people, who comprise an important part of the electorate. According to figures released by the Ministry of the Interior, in 1996 those aged between 20 and 39 accounted for 35 percent of Taiwan's population.
"The island's political parties depend for their very survival on winning votes from the young," says Peng Huei-en(彭懷恩), dean of the College of Journalism and Communication at suburban Taipei's Shih Hsin University. "And what young people want is hope. You have to provide them with a reason for working hard--a picture of a better life in the days ahead." It is no good talking to them about unification-versus-independence issues or problems of national identity, as they do not really care about such matters. "What a lot of thirtysomethings are actually concerned with is how they're expected to raise a family on the equivalent of US$1,000 a month," Peng notes. "Young people have become much more realistic. They want to know how a party can benefit them."
For that reason, Yu says, the DPP has frequently conducted surveys to try to find out what young people think and need, and the party takes the results of those surveys very seriously when drawing up its policies. The DPP's promotional activities are also being adjusted to project an image of youth, vitality, and freshness.
Yu believes that the mass media can be particularly useful in reinforcing her party's image. Unfortunately, however, advertising costs big bucks, so the party instead focuses on encouraging its members and public officeholders to grab every chance of appearing on TV or radio to air the party's views. It also strives to organize innovative activities in an attempt to capture media attention by giving them strong news content. "That kind of exposure serves to promote the DPP's image as being concerned with people and the environment," Yu says. "And most importantly, it brings in the largest gains for the least expenditure."
When it comes to image, how does the party see itself? "Incorruptibility has always been the DPP's most precious asset," Yu maintains. "It's what differentiates the party from the KMT, with its money politics and connections to underworld figures. We want Taiwan voters to think of the DPP as clean, efficient, and concerned for people." It seems to be working: Last November, the party scored substantial victories in the local elections. According to Yu, the DPP will continue to build on these positive perceptions so as to build up an image of being capable of ruling on both the local and the national levels.
Yu notes that the DPP has brought about at least one significant change in the public's perception of the party. "The DPP used to be associated with violence and other negative features," she concedes, "although as the opposition party coordinating grassroots forces in the fight against the KMT's authoritarian rule, it was inevitable that it should sometimes demand sacrifices, and confrontations were bound to happen." To compound the difficulty, in the party's early days the local media lost no opportunity of portraying it as irrational, destructive, and irresponsible. "You'd frequently find that it was police officers who had provoked a riot," she alleges. "But in the subsequent media reports, it was always DPP members who'd attacked the police."
Most observers acknowledge the significant role played by the DPP's former Director of Culture and Information, Sisy Chen(陳文茜), in softening the party's previously radical and predominantly masculine image. "She is the DPP's most outstanding beautician ever," Yu says. With her unique combination of formidable intelligence and femininity, Chen encapsulates the new Democratic Progressive Party. Popular with the local media, her frequent appearances on TV and radio greatly helped to enhance the party's popularity.
Nevertheless, image-building activities without solid underlying political achievements do not a summer make. "Voters want to know where's the beef," Yu acknowledges. "They want to know whether or not the party can formulate well-rounded policies and implement them effectively in ways that will make their lives better." Accordingly, the DPP has come up with a series of proposals for dealing with a wide range of issues, including social order, women's safety, teenage problems, and the welfare of the very young and the very old. "The development of concrete, feasible policies, and the administrative efficiency of our public officeholders, are the best ways of building a positive image," Yu says.
What about the ruling party? "The KMT has considerable administrative achievements to its credit," says Mu Ming-chu(穆閩珠), deputy director-general of the KMT's Department of Cultural Affairs. "It's a party that glorifies China and has built up Taiwan--its contributions to the island's rapid economic and political advancements cannot be denied or simply disregarded." Asked for specific examples, she points to the birth of the Republic of China in 1912, winning the Sino-Japanese War in 1945, and the economic miracle, plus, of course, genuine democratization.
But the KMT perceives itself as much more than just a political party, believing that it is the real heir to Chinese history and culture. "The existence of the KMT led to the establishment of the Republic of China as the first republic in Asia," Mu says. "No other party can hope to substitute for the deep-rooted relationship between the ROC and the KMT." Unlike the opposition parties, the KMT made tremendous sacrifices to enable China to emerge from being a despotic monarchy and become a democracy. "The party's political thought is a meld of research by Sun Yat-sen, experimentation, and the adoption of Western ideas," she stresses. "But the solid historical and cultural links between the KMT and the ROC are what really serve to differentiate it from other political parties."
Mu is quite clear about the image the KMT is seeking to create for itself. "What the KMT stands for is duty, honor, and country. Its fundamental responsibilities are to safeguard national survival, development, and security." In order to create and enhance such an image, her department is exploring two avenues. One is to improve ways of disseminating the party's policies to the general public. The other is to emphasize its administrative achievements.
Like everyone else, the KMT utilizes all possible means of publicity--promotional approaches to the electronic media, including radio, cable and direct-broadcast TV; printed materials; and today's advanced information products such as electronic bulletin boards and the Internet. "We hope that, through these channels, the public will come to recognize the KMT as a responsible party that wants to reform in order to hone its competitiveness," Mu says, although she also complains that PR companies and advertising firms lack both in-depth understanding of the KMT and the necessary sense of mission in promoting it. "For that reason, the overall planning of promotional materials and activities is still handled mainly by the party's Department of Cultural Affairs," she notes. "Although we do seek help and professional guidance from domestic PR and ad firms if we run into design and production problems."
Since the KMT is a political party that claims to represent all citizens, its platform seeks to address the needs of the general public. "The planning and implementation of our policies are comprehensive and systematic," Mu says. "We are striving to improve the welfare of the elderly and children." At present, however, the party is focusing particularly on youth, women, and underprivileged groups.
The biggest challenge that the party currently faces is to win the hearts of young people. "The KMT's characteristics and achievements don't seem to appeal much to the younger generation," she admits. "This is the result of the rapid changes in society that we've been witnessing. The public, particularly young people, want change, something fresh." Nowadays, the 103-year-old KMT is often perceived as lagging behind the rest of the field--conservative and reluctant to innovate. The party hopes to counter this by demonstrating a determination to carry through drastic reforms, and improving administrative efficiency.
According to Rose Chi(紀欣), who is responsible for the New Party's election campaign activities, the NP aims to offer an alternative to voters who are dissatisfied with the other main parties. The party has accordingly been striving to create a unique image of being anti-corruption and anti-Taiwan independence, says Chi, who serves concurrently as a National As sembly representative. "We hope that the projected image, featuring cleanliness, freshness, and competence, will reassure the public that they can count on administrative efficiency, social justice, and national security if they vote for us."
The NP is only four years old, and is still constrained by limitations on its funding and manpower. "Unlike the KMT, which commands a big party machine with various departments and a large staff, the NP maintains a slim organizational structure and manpower pool," Chi says. "We can't afford to pour money into publicity campaigns to cement our image." The party does not have a full-time publicity department, and it cannot afford to retain advertising or PR firms, so its promotional campaigns are restricted to a handful of printed materials--posters, fliers, and newsletters--and films produced by the party itself. Nevertheless, Chi says that several of her party's rallies have been successful in attracting crowds, in some cases up to 50,000 strong. "Staging rallies is becoming something of a NP hallmark, and for us it seems to work best," she says.
In the recent past, the NP has organized events with themes ranging from anti-corruption and women's safety to educational reform and deteriorating social order. "We try to let voters know that the NP is deeply concerned about their welfare and will seek solutions to their problems," Chi says. New Party officeholders have played a significant role in a number of areas, including passage of the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law, the introduction of a five-day working week for government and bank employees, and reconstruction of communities occupied by military veterans and their dependents. "NP public officeholders have demonstrated their incorruptibility and professionalism when improving the legal system," Chi emphasizes. They also occupy pole position when it comes to imposing checks and balances on their larger brethren, the KMT and the DPP.
In one respect at least, the NP has suffered from an image problem ever since its formation. Many people believe that the party is made up exclusively of emigrants who came from the mainland in 1949 and their offspring, or who side with Communist China. "These perceptions are completely inaccurate and misleading," Chi insists.
Nevertheless, in the December 1995 legislative elections the party captured 21 seats with 13 percent of the vote, and in the March 1996 National Assembly elections it made a respectable showing by garnering nearly 14 percent of the votes cast, giving it 46 of the 334 seats in play. On the strength of these results, NP officials contend that the party is winning the support of a growing number of voters, particularly women and young people. Maybe--but in last November's local elections the party failed to take a single seat, and the leadership fully recognizes the challenge facing them in the year-end elections for the Legislative Yuan.
Shih Hsin University's Peng Huei-en has spent a lot of time investigating how and to what extent the three main political parties have succeeded in establishing their desired images. Based on his observations, it seems that in recent years the KMT has put the emphasis on advertising and PR activities to do its image-building. For instance, the ruling party appointed the island's leading advertising and PR firm, United Advertising Co., to handle promotional materials and campaign activities in the 1996 presidential election. As a result, Peng believes, the design of the promotional materials and the style of promotional events were indeed more lively than would otherwise have been the case.
"The real problem confronting the KMT is not advertising or public relations, but the legacy of its historical burden," Peng says. "It's often perceived as too traditional and uncreative, so it no longer does good box office with younger people." Particularly damaging was the controversy over the freezing of the Taiwan Provincial Government last year, which most people saw as a power struggle among senior political heavyweights. The KMT's reputation undoubtedly suffered as a result, and this cast a shadow over the party's future development.
Nowadays the KMT still appears to be relying on economic development, democratization, and social stability as image enhancers--living on its achievements, in other words. But according to Peng, such accomplishments now enjoy limited appeal. Though the KMT's contribution to Taiwan's modernization is well recognized, the party does not enjoy any particular advantage in a society of growing expectations where voters constantly show signs of seeking innovation and change, and the ruling party's serious defeat in the recent local government elections is but one example of that. "The KMT can't simply rely on image-enhancement, for all its abundant resources and well-tried techniques," Peng says. "What the voters want is real substance. In other words, the ruling party must nominate talented candidates to stand for public office while conducting administrative reforms and preparing for a generational shift by finding the ideal successor to President Lee Teng-hui."
Peng is more positive about the DPP's prospects. He notes that the main opposition party has brought about a successful transformation by shaking off its "violence" and "Taiwan independence" labels. The support of DPP Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang(許信良) for the "three direct links" (trade, mail, and transportation) with mainland China served to tone down the party's pro-independence stance. Hsu has now reiterated several times that if and when the DPP gains power, it will not declare independence immediately--the final decision will rest on the outcome of a referendum.
Peng also believes that promotional strategies currently being adopted by the DPP are more efficient than those of the KMT and other political parties, as witness last November's local elections. The DPP has swapped its old downbeat, doom-laden appeals for a more cheerful approach, including "spice girl" entertainment groups and disco parties that attract huge crowds. "What's more, the DPP has got a brighter range of talent on board, people who know how to make the best use of the media to promote the party's platform and image," Peng says. "Major DPP figures such as Chairman Hsu, Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian(陳水扁), and Sisy Chen are all very good at grabbing the media's attention."
Not everything in the garden is lovely, however: The party may have gained more political clout, but it is now faced with internal leadership power struggles. Factionalism has always bedeviled the DPP, and it will have to overcome that if people are to take it seriously as a party capable of running Taiwan responsibly and efficiently.
Peng also rather likes the cut of the NP's jib. It enjoys a reasonably fresh, clean image among university students, although this is another party that has undergone a series of damaging leadership disputes. The major problem facing the NP, according to Peng, is that it still lacks genuine political talent. None of its candidates has yet won election as a city or county chief, and the party as a whole seems unable to engineer publicity in a way that impresses the public.
"The year-end legislative election will be a key factor deciding whether or not the NP can still be listed as the third-largest political party in Taiwan, or as merely a bubble political party," Peng says. He sums it up by emphasizing that all the parties will have to devise concrete, public-spirited policies if they are to obtain recognition and support. "The important thing is the underlying structure," he says. "Without substantial achievements to build on, any PR technique designed to fashion a positive image is doomed to fail."