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SCMP Reporter

Lien Chan feels the heat as he takes to the south where the DPP enjoys its biggest support

Spring has not yet arrived in southern Taiwan, but sweat was pouring down Kuomintang presidential candidate Lien Chan's  face as he viewed a large crowd from a stage outside the Tianhau Temple on the outskirts of Kaohsiung.

By noon the temperature had risen to  30 degrees Celsius, but despite the heat Mr Lien was  intent on delivering his message as he sought voters' support in the presidential elections on Saturday.

'The Democratic Progressive Party is wrecking the future of Taiwan,' said Mr Lien, a bespectacled 67-year-old who was vice-president before the Kuomintang lost the  2000  election.

'The nation has nowhere to go. I'm here to say the DPP couldn't apologise enough for its bad performance in the past four years.

'On March 20, calculate your economic losses and whether you can afford another four years with the DPP in power. So come out and join me in calling out: change presidents and rescue Taiwan,' Mr Lien said.

Ahead of  the election, Mr Lien and his rival, President Chen Shui-bian,  are  almost neck and neck.  According to the latest poll, Mr Lien enjoys a 41 per cent support rating, while Mr Chen is just behind at 37 per cent.

Mr Chen was born in a village in Tainan, a county near Kaohsiung, and it is here in the country's south where the DPP enjoys its biggest support.

In the past decade, the  party has  controlled almost every single southern village, township, county and city.

Mr Lien, who was born on the mainland but with a father from Tainan, can lay claim to being a native son but he has had to work a lot harder to prove it. His mother was born in Xian on the mainland, he grew up speaking Mandarin,    a language he is much more comfortable with.

But these days he speaks almost exclusively Taiwanese, which is similar to southern Fujian's Minnan dialect. Analysts believe he has to, in order to appeal to traditional voters.

To win the presidential race, Mr Lien has not only to secure  the KMT-dominated north, he has to score solidly with voters deep in the south, analysts say.

Southern voters  are predominantly Taiwanese nationalists. They are primarily rural, eschew speaking Mandarin,  and look on the KMT as a foreign power that seized the island after losing the mainland to the communists in 1949.

Mr Chen's victory in 2000 caused much concern in Beijing. And he is stirring up cross-strait tensions this year by making the mainland's deployment of missiles against the island his main campaign weapon against Mr Lien and the KMT, which he accuses of being pro-mainland.

Mr Chen will not only run for re-election on Saturday: he is hosting the island's first referendum, asking voters to take a position against the mainland's missile deployment and to give the government 'permission' to negotiate for peace with Beijing.

Of the island's 23 million residents, fewer than 4 million come from the mainland in 1949, or are descendants of such immigrants.  However, this group comprises the bulk of the KMT membership; for years they were also the island's ruling elite.

With the exception of the 4.5 million who are ethnically Hakka, most of the rest consider themselves ethnically Taiwanese.

'Gaining votes in southern Taiwan is really important,' said Pao Keming a media strategist for the Lien campaign team,  as a procession of more than 30 vehicles left the Tianhau Temple with a police escort.

'This is a war we must win. If we don't, the Republic of China in Taiwan will be finished. If Chen Shui-bian wins, we'll have a constitutional amendment and then it'll be a Republic of Taiwan and possibly war with mainland China,' the strategist said.

Mr Lien's convoy was  in 'enemy' territory. Flanked by two armed national security agents, he stood atop an open jeep  and waved to passers-by  as the procession snaked into Mr Chen's  home county, Tainan.

Some people waved back, but many just looked coolly at him as they stood under bright green Chen Shui-bian campaign flags hanging over their front doors.

A man at the head of the  procession called out through a loudspeaker: 'Lien Chan is here. Lien Chan is here. Lien Chan is here to visit and to seek your help.'

Local supporters lit firecrackers, while campaign workers in one of the trucks started playing the campaign theme song.

Mr Lien leant over  and waved. He smiled, held his hands together and implored:  'Please, please, vote for me.' His campaign workers waved his red, blue and white flags out of their car windows and yelled:  'Boss, please help us, please help us.'

'This is Taiwan's campaign culture,' said Hsia Da-ming, a senior campaign aide in charge of scheduling events. 'Every Taiwanese voter is technically the nation's boss, and we must cater to them in order to win their vote.'

This was the third day of Mr Lien's tour of the south, the last major  push he will make in the region. When he did not have the time to stop, he and his motorcade drove through villages and towns to wave at curious onlookers. 'We call this 'sweeping for votes',' said media  strategist Mr Pao.

'You may think we're wasting time, but locals consider our visit critical. Many will vote for us just because we came by recently and waved at them,' he added. 'See, look there, look at that woman - she just waved back. It means we have won another voter.' At lunchtime,   Mr Lien  arrived at a rally back in Kaohsiung, hosted by a local  business association and a  group of taxi drivers.

He walked on stage and fired up the crowd.

'We want to make peace with the mainland,' he said.

Tomorrow: on the campaign trail with Chen Shui-bian



Opposition earmarks leader's stronghold