The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) celebrated its 17th anniversary yesterday. Many public opinion polls show that many people do not feel safe under the party's rule even though they are also unwilling to see a return of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) rule. As a result, the blue camp's lead over the green camp has remained unchanged. How to break this deadlock and win back the public's trust is the DPP's main task for the next 12 months.
The DPP won political power on an anti-corruption and "love Taiwan" platform and a "new middle road" political discourse. But the party lacked the breadth of talent necessary to form a truly competent government. Taking up the reins of government before it was really ready for the job caused the DPP to stumble time and again. Its government has faced obstructionism by the opposition at every turn. External factors such as the global economic slowdown also made it difficult for the party to realize its policies and ideals.
Since its promises of "happiness and hope" fizzled, the DPP seems to have lost the ability to create a new discourse. President Chen Shui-bian (
For example, one long-term DPP policy is to revoke the tax exemptions and 18-percent preferential deposit interest rate given to servicemen, civil servants and teachers. The Executive Yuan has drafted amendments to the tax laws and sent them for legislative review. But Chen recently surprised the Executive Yuan and the DPP by announcing that these perks will not be revoked during his term. His announcement was apparently aimed at easing the pressure of protest by teachers scheduled for yesterday, as well as trying to woo votes from teachers and civil servants.
His announcement set a bad precedent. We have seen similar policy U-turns regarding reforms of the farmers' and fishermen's credit cooperatives and educational reforms. These have created doubts among the public about the DPP's reforms.
The DPP has always had a democratic tradition. However, to resolve conflicts between government and party policies, Chen broke with the party's tradition of separating government and party powers, and took over as party chairman. This has resolved intra-party conflicts, but it has also caused intra-party pluralism to wither. Even after the party's defeat in the Hualien County commissioner by-election, little dissent was heard inside the party.
The DPP is suffering from a policy-making crisis. It appears to be following in the footsteps of the KMT. In an attempt to defend its political power, the DPP has begun to show a conservative, even regressive attitude, only comparing mistakes and not comparing progressiveness. Bravely challenging authority and constantly seeking reform and progress used to be the hallmarks of the DPP.
Getting re-elected is the party's main focus because only with another four-year term will it be able to carry out its planned reforms. For many voters, however, the re-election of a DPP without the determination to reform will be futile. The DPP is now facing suspicion and mistrust from middle-of-the-ground voters about its performance. To win them back, the DPP will have to restore its democratic spirit and insist on reforms. Only then can it meet the public's expectations.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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