By Clement Tan | January 26, 2024 | CNBC.com
TAIPEI — “One day, we’ll get our victory,” Ko Wen-je, the vanquished presidential candidate for the Taiwan People’s Party, said at his concession speech two weeks ago.
He urged his disappointed young supporters, some of them crying, not to give up, and framed himself as a one-man social movement crusading for political change.
“For me, over the last 10 years, whether I was in office or standing for election, I have always regarded it as a social movement aimed at changing political culture. Since this social movement has not fully materialized, let’s keep working hard,” the former Taipei City Mayor told supporters in Mandarin.
While he may have finished last in the first competitive three-way race for the Taiwan presidency since 2000, Ko garnered more than a quarter of the popular vote — disrupting the usual stranglehold of the dominant political parties, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and Kuomintang.
The 63-year-old clearly resonated with the young and educated as he spoke plainly into their everyday bread-and-butter issues, including soaring housing costs and stagnant wages at a time of high inflation.
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