Unlike many of the other new cabinet members, who are political newcomers with backgrounds in academia, Chang Po-ya received her baptism in politics 30 years ago, when she was still a student. It was 1969 when Chang ran in the supplementary election for the Legislative Yuan as a graduate student in public health at National Taiwan University. Leading up to the election, all she told the public was that she was the daughter of Chiayi mayor Hsu Shih-hsien and a graduate student at NTU. When the votes were tallied, Chang's votes rocketed straight up to 190,000, and the Broadcasting Company of China along with the county's two privately run radio stations announced her election.

However, just an hour later, her vote tally dropped to 90,000, sealing her "narrow defeat." Today, recalling that incident in a media interview as she runs around her office packing and meeting with Chiayi citizens, Chang is tactful in recalling the episode: "Back then there were no vote monitors, so I don't know how they fooled with the results. I just felt that the government was insincere and untrustworthy."

Watched over by "Chiayi's Matsu"

Chang involvement in politics can be attributed to her family history. Chang's mother, Hsu Shih-hsien, was the first Taiwanese woman to earn a doctoral degree in medicine. At the age of 32, after she and husband Chang Chin-tung earned "twin degrees" at Japan's Kyushu Imperial University, she returned with her husband to Taiwan to practice medicine. Like Sun Yat-sen, Hsu Shih-hsien's aspiration at first was to treat illness and heal people. However, heavily influenced by Sun's philosophy of "healing people to heal the nation," she set out on the road to democracy.

In 1946 Hsu Shih-hsien made the transition from doctor to politician, serving initially as a member of the first Chiayi City Council, then as a four-term Provincial Assemblywoman, mayor of Chiayi, and legislator. In 1982, at the age of 75, she jumped into the fray once again and ran for mayor of Chiayi, realizing the dream of re-election she had held for a decade. Sadly, having overworked herself for so long, she became sick the following year and passed away while in office.

With her death, the legacy of Hsu Shih-hsien's many years of dedication to Chiayi was taken up by third daughter Chang Wen-ying and fourth daughter Chang Po-ya, paving the way for the true-life political legend of mother and daughters taking turns in the Chiayi mayor's seat.

Discussing how her parents raised her and which of her mother's qualities influenced her most, Chang Po-ya says, "My parents both studied medicine, and whether as doctors or as politicians they always made serving the public their ultimate objective. For them, public opinion was supreme. I studied public health, which is also about serving the public, so I don't feel that working in politics is any different from my previous work." From a young age, she accompanied her mother on her political rounds, and it instilled in her a deep concern for politics.

While it is true that her political awakening grew out of family tradition, Chang's credentials are impressive in their own right. She has a BA in medicine from Kaohsiung Medical College, an MA from National Taiwan University's Institute of Public Health, another MA in public health from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and a PhD in medicine from Kyorin University in Japan. Upon obtaining her doctorate in Japan, she returned to Taiwan to teach at her alma mater, Kaohsiung Medical College.

Her mother's death prompted Chang to take up the mantle of her mother's unfulfilled aspirations. "On the one hand it was my mother's wish, while at the same time it was also an invitation from the people of Chiayi," she says with a chuckle. Once on the political road, she never strayed from it again. In 1983, Chang entered the by-election for Chiayi mayor, winning the race and serving the first two mayoral terms following the city's placement under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. She then took up the challenge of running for legislator, emerging victorious, and when Hau Pei-tsun put his cabinet together in 1990, Chang was enlisted to serve as director of the Department of Health.

Chang's proudest accomplishments during her seven-year stint as Minister of Health are her role in instituting the National Health Insurance system and her exhaustive promotion of AIDS prevention awareness. As for the policy of dividing the medical and pharmaceutical professions, Chang admits there has been difficulty in its implementation, noting that "many senior members of the medical community have had a hard time adjusting to the change."

Political agility

Apart from recognized character and capability, media analysts credit the Hsu clan's independent, non-partisan line for its popularity. Lacking party affiliation, the Hsu clan has extra room to weave and bob through the political environment.

In the heat of the intense 2000 ROC presidential election campaign, the candidates fell over themselves trying to win support from Chang Po-ya. For a time it was rumored that James Soong had asked her to be his running mate. Meanwhile, Chen Shui-bian called on her several times during the campaign, stressing that he would ask her to join his cabinet if he were elected.

Over 40 years ago, in a far less politically enlightened era, Hsu Shih-hsien made a point of challenging power and privilege. When the KMT applied the heat to her, she quit the party without hesitation. Subsequently, she formed the short-lived Chinese People's Party with Lei Chen. With Lei's arrest and imprisonment, the nascent party disbanded, making Hsu an independent and fortifying her role as an honest opposition politician.

"My mother had a much tougher experience in politics. In the past, not having a party affiliation meant you were dangwai (literally "outside the party"), for which they arrested people," says Chang. But today, with all the factions in the DPP, she says staying unaffiliated makes things easier.

Not needing party support, Chang says she has never felt discriminated against as a woman over the course of her political career. "I've always campaigned against men, and have never felt any gender discrimination," she relates. Nevertheless, she adds that with the large number of females in the new cabinet the public will be able to get more comfortable with women in politics, and women will find that they can serve society on a wider scale.

Looking ahead to the demanding role of Minister of the Interior, Chang Po-ya says that she senses the public's yearning for better public safety. Consequently, she says that her job is filled with responsibility rather than joy, and that she will give it her best shot.