In an address to a party congress Sunday, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen declared that her party's campaign in city and county mayoral elections the December 5 will "re-polish" the DPP's tarnished signboards of "quality administration" and the values of "integrity, diligent governance and love of country."

One day after Ma completed his controversial reassumption of the KMT chairmanship, Tsai, buoyed by a landslide DPP victory in a legislative by-election in Yunlin County last month, steered her party in a "center-left" direction with a promise to realizing "progressive life and a fair Taiwan" for all citizens and not simply govern for the benefit of "rich conglomerates."

The DPP, which is fielding 14 candidates for the 17 mayoral posts, clearly intends to take advantage of the dismal administrative record of Ma's restored KMT government which has mismanaged the economy, blindly "locked" Taiwan's development hopes on the mercies of the authoritarian People's Republic of China and incompetently responded to natural disasters and other crises, notably Typhoon Morakot in August.

Dismay over the plunge in living standards and quality, an unexpected regression in democracy and human rights standards and tangible erosion in Taiwan's international dignity has fuelled a plunge in Ma's approval ratings from over 70 percent before taking office to 29.5 percent favorable and 58.6 dissatisfied in a survey of 1,006 Taiwan adults conducted October 14-16 by the Global Views Survey Research Center.

Whether the Taiwan people are really willing to give the DPP another chance will be shown by whether the party is able to hold on to its current three posts in Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties, win back its longtime stronghold of Yilan County, score an upset in Nantou or Changhua and boost vote shares in the other KMT dominated districts.

As Tsai noted, the DPP cannot rest its hopes of restoring Taiwan - centric governance in 2012 on the faults or internal divisions in the KMT, but must show the majority of Taiwan voters that the DPP offers them a superior option that is "not only better than today's KMT but that is also better than the past DPP."

Tsai took an important step in this direction by offering a new policy vision focussed on improving the standards and quality of the lives of the Taiwan people in the concept of a "Taiwan dream" based on concepts of a "progressive life" and a "fair Taiwan."

Putting living quality first

Tsai outlined a "progressive life" as one in which can increase the real income of Taiwan's ordinary people will rise, can offer the security to raise a new generation with assured employment, livable and safe communities, clean air and water, quality education and sustainable industry and possess "historical and cultural content and can coexist peacefully with Nature."

In outlining the party's notion of a "fair Taiwan," Tsai listed a series of counterpoints with the KMT by vowing that "we will not destroy first and afterward engage in post-disaster reconstruction; we will not first exploit labor and then give compensation; we will not sacrifice the development of rural areas for the prosperity of cities; we will not undermine the welfare of the poor and middle classes to enrich capitalists and will not use sacrifice wealth and income equity for economic growth."

The DPP also committed itself to ensuring that "Taiwan has fair and comprehensive economic governance" with a long-term sustainable economy and an economic and industrial strategy that "clearly delineates," and hence limits, "China's role and weight in Taiwan's development."

In terms of diplomacy, Tsai stated that the DPP aimed to ensure Taiwan's "autonomous development and national dignity" in a rapidly changing world and "will absolutely not one-sidely lean toward China."

The new direction reflects the realization among the DPP leadership that genuine commitment of Taiwan citizens to an independent and democratic Taiwan rests on actual improvements in the quality of their lives, but the critical task will now be to prove to the Taiwan people in action as well as in words that "the DPP has corrected its past mistakes and can now give the people hope."

The greatest challenge faced by the DPP will be to prove its re-commitment to political integrity and the greatest threat to trust-rebuilding lies the impression of the DPP as "a house divided" conveyed by the chronic jockeying among its four "stars," namely former vice president Annette Lu and former premiers Frank Hsieh, Su Tseng-chang and Yu Shyi-kun, whom share both responsibility for the DPP's defeats last year and ambitions for the 2012 presidential sweepstakes.

Their dissension both undermines collective unity and diverts attention from the DPP's critical challenge of securing a working legislative majority necessary to dispel voter fears of a return to deadlocked government.