Change Doesn’t Come Out of Thin Air

President Tsai has vowed to transform the way government operates by empowering young people and bringing new voices into her administration. For this to happen, the conservatives will have to be willing to bow out gracefully 

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her Democratic Progressive Party ran a highly successful campaign leading into the January elections. Unlike their opponents from the Kuomintang (KMT), the DPP much better understood — and reflected in its rhetoric — the public mood that had developed in the wake of the transformative Sunflower Movement in 2014. With Tsai’s election, people expected change, and the incoming president herself promised she would transform the way things are done. 

Then came her Cabinet appointments, which very quickly cast doubt on the likelihood that change was upon us. With an average age of 61, the ministerial lineup was technocratic, male dominated, and to be frank, it was oddly reminiscent of previous Cabinet compositions. 

My article, published today in The News Lens International, continues here.