Essential Qualities of a Good Mayor

張貼日期：Dec 27, 2018 1:12:47 PM

Jerry Chou

Election of the city mayors and country magistrates is coming up and I see and hear lots of stuff about the candidates on television, telephone, and on the streets. The candidates are all trying to convince us to vote for them. What makes me want to vote for them depends on whether they are honest, and persistent on their ideas, as well as their communicative skill.

Honesty is one of the most important qualities because this is what makes me think if this mayor is trustworthy or not. A mayor should not make any excuses and should apologize immediately if he or she has made a mistake. I think mayor Wen-je Ko has this quality, because he apologized for saying “People on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are all of one family” on the Universiade that was held in Taiwan in 2017. The reason he said that was because he wanted to relieve the tension between Taiwan and China, but apparently some Taiwanese weren’t very happy about that.

Persistency on their ideas is also another important element because if the mayor is not persistent, then things may go horribly wrong. Take Mayor Ko as an example. He doesn’t give in under pressure and sticks with whatever decision he has made. He decided to cancel the policy of giving seniors a cash gift by the municipal government. The reason he did this was to improve financial problems of Taipei City. He also isn’t affected by whether his supporters will drop down or not, and he will stick with what he has decided.

Communicative skill is the most crucial trait that a mayor should have because what the mayor says may determine how many people are willing to support them. Mayor Ko speaks very straight forward and that’s why he had many youngster supporters in the beginning. The reason to that is the way he speaks is totally different from other politicians and candidates who may speak in a bureaucratic tone, in order not to offend anyone.

The qualities mentioned above are all important because if a mayor doesn’t have any of these qualities how are we going to improve the city we are living in? So we should think thoroughly before we decide to cast our vote.