Political party embraces ‘obasang’ spirit to shake up Taiwan politics ?

Political party embraces ‘obasang’ spirit to shake up Taiwan politics ?

2024-05-19

In this year’s general elections, a little-known political party made headlines for earning the fifth highest number of votes in the country. This was the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party, which was founded by a group of mothers seeking change. In Taiwan, the word "obasang" is an affectionate nickname for older women. But it’s an identity that even the younger party members have embraced. Tonight in our Sunday special report, we meet the people behind this new party and find out what it is they stand for.

Steamed buns in every color crisp in the pan, releasing a delicious aroma. They are just as colorful as the clothes of the woman preparing them. She’s Liu Tai-nung, who ran in the 2024 legislative election with the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party. Since her electoral defeat, she’s gone back to her everyday life.
 
Liu Tai-nung
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
We love setting up shop out here in nature, because you get to go on nice walks. We homeschool our three children, and we want them to see the world. In the beginning we set up our stall at many Indigenous villages. Usually, you wouldn’t just intrude into a village like that. But through our stall, we were able to connect with the people in the village, and our children could play with the local kids. It allowed them to get to know all sorts of places.

Before entering politics, Liu ran a small food stand. On the surface, she had nothing in common with the average politician. But as she ran her business, she began paying attention to labor issues. And having married a Paiwan man, she became interested in the rights of Indigenous people. Eventually, she decided to advocate for ordinary people like herself. Running for office was a nerve-racking decision. 
 
Liu Tai-nung
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
Of course it was a long struggle. I was riddled with self-doubt. I wondered whether someone at the bottom of society like me could do things like that. To be known by others, to run for election. Many people were like, “You must be joking!” I really encountered situations like that.
 
The Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party began with a group of mothers who connected through attending activities for families. In 2017, they created the Obasang Alliance, the predecessor to the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party. The alliance felt that that society failed to provide enough support to families with children. But as far back as 2014, the group was already engaging in social activism, successfully lobbying for family-friendly carriages on TRA trains. Children’s rights are at the core of their advocacy work.

Lin Shih-han
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
The children’s rights perspective is really lacking in our society. Some people think that children should be brought up under the control and education of adults. That limits children’s freedom to improve and explore things for themselves. So in 2018, we decided to step forward and run for election. The fundamental idea was to turn political spaces into places where you don’t just hear people speaking up for adults, but also for children.
 
The group participated in its first election in 2018. All 21 of its councilor candidates were defeated. In 2019, the group formally registered as a political party, the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party. Women make up 90% of its members, and 85% of them are working mothers. At the beginning, the party had a mere NT$210,000 to its name, making its survival very challenging. In 2022, the members ran in local elections once again, and lost all their races a second time. But they did not give up. Instead, they aimed higher, and joined the legislative election in 2024.

Cherry Ho
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
Nowadays, politics is all about defending men’s interests and upholding the patriarchy. So we decided to put forward 10 candidates to run for district legislator. We had all sorts of women: working women, pregnant women, women with children… All of us worked together to make our voices be heard.
 
The party is not just made up of mothers. They have members as young as 27 years old and people from the LGBT community.
 
Liu Tai-nung
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
Many people are surprised that we call ourselves obasang despite being young. But I say to them that we’re obasang in spirit. We dare to speak up and to meddle in other people’s business.
 
The party’s platform goes beyond children’s rights, women’s rights and issues that concern families. The group also fights for labor rights and gender equality, and has even campaigned for lowering the voting age to 18. As a smaller party, members feel empowered to bring up issues that bigger parties might not dare to discuss. But at the same time, critics argue that members don’t have the expertise needed for politics and policymaking.

Lin Shih-han
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
A lot of the things that scholars and experts talk about are far removed from people’s realities. But we learn things from living our daily lives and walking on the street. For example, we know when a certain traffic light doesn’t stay green long enough for older people crossing the road. This is a real-life issue that needs to be addressed. It doesn’t necessarily have to be solved by a group of highly educated people brought together by a political framework.

But despite the group’s readiness to join politics, questions remain whether it can overcome the countless hurdles involved.

Children have fun on the playground. This park doubles as a meeting room for the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party.

Lin Shih-han
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
We have nine party branches around Taiwan, but none of them have a fixed location. We gather at parks to discuss matters such as the projects we want to develop and the tasks we have to do. Our approach proves that any place can serve as an office.
 
The group came out as the fifth-biggest political force in the 2024 party list vote, even without a physical office space. But the party’s financial problems only got worse after the election. The party failed to secure 3% of the party list vote, making it ineligible for government subsidies. It also didn’t meet the 1% threshold to make donations from supporters tax-deductible. The group’s already scarce funds went fully toward electoral deposits and campaign materials. There were also a lot of hidden costs that the party members had to pay out of pocket.

Cherry Ho
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
We devoted a lot of work time to policy discussions and a lot of time to advocacy. We even had people out on the streets promoting our platform while a group of mothers took care of their kids. All this time spent on childcare, and all our expenses on people weren’t factored into our election budget. The time and energy of these mothers was not free.

In the eyes of many in Taiwan society, a mother’s job is to take care of her children. Some people were left baffled over the decision of these mothers to run for election.

Yeh Huai-sheng
Husband of Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party member
When they, as women, were running for office, some people asked them why they didn’t just stay home to take care of their children. People even asked them what would happen to their children if they got elected. If they were men running for election, nobody would have asked them about what would happen to their children.
 
Lin Shih-han
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
In many countries in Scandinavia, or countries such as New Zealand and Australia, they are very open about allowing women to bring their children to work, their legislatures and their congresses. They can take care of their children while they do their jobs. That kind of environment makes women more willing to have children.
 
A better society for women and mothers is still a long way away. When party member Liu Shu-ting brought her child along to register for the election in late 2023, election commission staff gave her a lot of trouble.
 
Liu Shu-ting
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
We went to the New Taipei Election Commission. They wouldn’t let me bring my child in with me to register for the election, saying that the railings were dangerous for kids. Staff told me that I should get my family affairs sorted out first before running for office. If the railings were indeed dangerous, as a government entity, they should work on improving the design, and not just bar children from entering. We waited until 5:30 p.m. and they still didn’t let me go in with my child.
 
Though the party didn’t win any seats in the Legislative Yuan, they plan to work with lawmakers to promote their causes.
 
After the election, the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party organized a meet and greet with supporters. To their surprise, there were barely any mothers in the audience. It was mostly people under the age of 40.
 
Student
I am a student, a high-school student. I’m 17 years old and I’m interested in gender equality, transport and transitional justice. I noticed your presence in events such as the pride parade, and the march for pedestrian rights. I’ve been learning more and more about the party.
 
Lin Shih-han
Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party
They connect with the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party because they can tell that we don’t just care about our own rights and interests. We don’t push them to the back just because they can’t vote.

Through its activism, the party is trying to turn Taiwan into a place where younger generations can thrive. The party says that everyone, regardless of age, identity or right to vote, should be allowed to get involved in public affairs.

Yeh Huai-sheng
Husband of Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party member
At the beginning, I was quite opposed to her running for election. It seemed like it would be even more hectic than my own job, and she’d have to do it with two children in tow. But then I came to realize that our children were interacting with all sorts of people at campaign events, and that they were being exposed to all sorts of social issues. Looking back, I think that was quite beautiful.
 
This grassroots movement is trying to solve inequality in Taiwan politics, while empowering women, mothers and obasangs to let their voices be heard.

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