Profile: City council candidate Wang Chung-ming

Profile: City council candidate Wang Chung-ming
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2014/11/12/2003604220

By Ho Yi  /  Taipei Times Staff reporter

Environmentalist. Anti-nuclear proponent. Openly gay. The profile of Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) reads like a description of a real liberal. But that didn’t get him elected when the political hopeful first ran for the office of the city council in New Taipei City as a nominee of the Green Party Taiwan (GPT) in 2010.

“Four years ago, we told everybody that we were young, full of ideas and passion. And that we wanted to bring about real changes. But it was just empty talk,” the 35-year-old Wang says.

Real changes do not come from championing ideas, as the candidate has learned. A textbook-perfect political platform on environmental protection, sustainability and social justice will remain empty if it lacks knowledge gained from experiencing local ways of life.

Having spent the past four years getting to know locals, Wang decided to join the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections this year and run for the 1st constituency in New Taipei City, which comprises the Shihmen (石門), Sanjhih (三芝), Bali (八里) and Tamsui (淡水) districts, for the second time.

FROM SLOGAN TO ACTION

Wang’s political enlightenment began in 2006 when he and several other bloggers and internet pundits helped out with the election campaign for the Green Party candidates for the office of city council. The fact that what he deemed a “very successful public relations campaign” didn’t get the candidates anywhere near the public office led Wang to conclude that cyber advocacy, as powerful as it may appear, doesn’t necessarily translate into votes. Shortly after, the then-art magazine editor joined the GPT.

In 2010, Wang was among the party’s five nominees to run for city council in Taipei. Agriculture appears at the highest level on his political agenda, and the environmental activist/novice candidate frequently took part in sit-ins and street demonstrations against several high-profile construction projects, including the Suhua Freeway (蘇花高速公路) and Tambei Expressway (淡北道路, Tamsui-Taipei Expressway). However, his street activism also drew criticism from fellow activists and NGO workers who thought that by concentrating only on issue-advocacy campaigns, Wang overlooked the importance of working with local residents and groups to gain a deeper understanding of their issues.

For the past four years, grassroots outreach has been a top priority for Wang, who says that after the 2010 election, residents in his constituency would often come to him, for problems ranging from disputes over tree-cutting to the preservation of an old street.

In 2012, Wang worked with local residents to organize the ongoing campaign against the Construction and Planning Agency’s proposed phase-II development of Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) in Tamsui, which plans to seize about 1,200 hectares of land, with most of the targeted area being farmland, forcing more than 1,600 households to relocate. The experiences with grassroots organizing, handling bureaucracies and influencing policy process have helped Wang to break out of the realm of ideas and enter the real world.

“Before, I didn’t know how to make my way into the countryside. The case of Tamhai New Town has helped me to develop a support base in the suburban areas of Tamsui. With the locals, it is all about emotional bonding. If you help them, they will support you no matter what,” he says.

INTO THE PROVINCES

With its progressive political views and platform, the GPT has often been criticized for being unrealistic and appealing to a limited demographic that is mostly urban, highly educated and information-savvy. The result of Wang’s 2010 election clearly reflects the tendency. Out of the 8,321 votes Wang received, more than 7,000 came from Tamsui, the most urban among the four districts. According to Wang’s own analysis, he received a 5 to 10 percent average voting ratio in urban commercial districts. In smaller communities mainly consisting of old residential apartment buildings, the voting ratio is 5 percent. In rural areas, the figure drops to 2 to 3 percent, and sometimes less than 1.

Wang has discovered that attending local religious event is an important way to meet community leaders, whether it is during deity statues’ “inspection tours” (繞境), traditional pudu (普渡) ceremonies or temple festivities such as bandoh (辦桌), a type of Taiwanese outdoor banquet.

“When there is a temple pilgrimage or bandoh, I am there, shaking hands and introducing myself,” he says.

Door-knocking is another way to reach out — Wang has trekked through numerous villages, rural communities and hamlets, visiting one household at a time.

“In the city, we can probably reach out to 100 people in 10 minutes by making a public speech and handing out flyers,” the candidate said. “In the countryside, I ride my bike for an hour, and there are only 20 households along the roadside. It takes a lot more time. But it allows me to not only meet with local residents but learn about their communities and what they think.”

The visits have helped Wang and his team to gain a better understanding of the various cultures, environments and sociopolitical compositions in different areas. Take Shihmen for example — though Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant is located there, anti-nuclear activists have had limited luck in garnering support from local residents. This is because it is a relatively affluent area where inhabitants are mostly seniors, as the majority of youth have moved out for work. Residents in Bali, on the other hand, have many things to complain about regarding their polluted environment, which Wang addresses on his political agenda.

Chatting with locals brings knowledge about their lives, and it can help the GPT gradually break its limits as an urban political party, Wang says.

Meanwhile, Wang’s anti-development stance has inevitably created a lot of enemies. When he successfully helped to nullify an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposed Tamsui-Taipei expressway construction project last year, many were furious, accusing him of being autocratic.

“I can understand people’s anger and frustration. It is exactly how we feel when the government does something which we believe is wrong,” Wang reflects.

He adds, “Dealing with emotions is much harder than participating in the debate about ideas. Part of a politician’s job is to communicate with people. And that is something I need to put more effort into.”

Green Party to nominate 10 legislative candidates

Green Party to nominate 10 legislative candidates
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/07/11/2003507950

‘HEAL THE WOUNDED LAND’:Candidates put forward a number of platforms that include calling for the early retirement of nuclear power plants and tree protection

Staff Writer, with CNA

The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) will nominate 10 candidates for the district legislators election in January, with the list to be released at the end of the month, spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said on Saturday.

Pan said the GPT had received a 2.2 percent average voting ratio in the electoral constituencies where they had nominees during the five special municipalities elections in November, which was a “great leap forward” from the 0.6 percent the party achieved in 2008.

The party’s voting ratio reached a high of 9.7 percent in Danshui (淡水), New Taipei City (新北市), Pan said, adding that he hoped the party’s voting ratio would exceed the 5 percent benchmark during the election.

According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法), political parties who do not garner at least 5 percent of votes for the party will not be eligible to nominate candidates for legislator-at-large seats.

Pan also said he would run for legislator in Taipei’s 7th electoral constituency against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominee Alex Fai (費鴻泰) to safeguard old trees and government-owned land by pushing for a motion to have a second municipal forest park -created in lieu of the Taipei Dome.

The long-stalled Taipei Dome build-operate-transfer (BOT) project began in 2006 when the city government signed a contract with Farglory to construct a 40,000-seat indoor stadium complex with commercial facilities at the abandoned Songshan Tobacco Factory site.

Pan said GPT central executive committee member Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) would run for the 1st constituency in New Taipei City against KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Po-wen (何博文) on a platform proposing the early retirement of the First and Second Nuclear Power Plants as well as more careful development of Danhai New Town (淡海新市鎮).

GPT member Lin Chen-yang (林震洋) will run for the 3rd constituency in Greater Kaohsiung against the KMT’s Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and the DPP’s Lin Ying-jung (林瑩蓉) advocating that the government keep its promise to shut down the Fifth Naphtha Cracker Plant “to heal the wounded land,” Pan said.

Pan also said that Tsai Shan-wen (蔡善雯), a participant in the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts dispatch worker protest, would run in the 4th constituency of Greater Taichung against KMT nominee Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) and DPP nominee Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅).

“We are currently trying to persuade former Changhua County Environmental Protection Union chief Lin Shih-hsien (林世賢) to run in the 2nd constituency in -Changhua County against the KMT’s Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) to ensure the implementation of the anti-Kuokuang Petrochemical Park efforts,” Pan said.

The petrochemical park was initially scheduled for construction at the Dacheng Wetlands (大城濕地) in Changhua County and was expected to expand oil refining capacity and the production of chemicals such as ethylene.

However, the project was called off when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) expressed his opposition amid growing protests from environmentalists and local residents.

Pan said the GPT would field candidates in the northeastern part of Taipei, where the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is being built, as well as the Sijhih (汐止), Yonghe (永和) and Zhonghe (中和) constituencies, where there have been many issues involving tree protection recently.

The GPT will also seek to have candidates in Hualien and Taitung in response to what has been described as improper BOT operations by corporations over the transfer of government-owned land and the building of nuclear waste dumps on Aboriginal land.

Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer