While the opposition is still entangled with post-election political disputes and its own problems of power redistribution, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has initiated inter-party reform with proposals it introduced last week. These electoral reforms aim at eliminating factional manipulation of party members and paving the way for more fair and open competition.
The DPP's attempts at internal reform not only displayed the party's capacity for self-examination but also demonstrated that President Chen Shui-bian (
The art of leadership is to maintain sufficient momentum to steer public policy without losing public support. An idealistic leader will not hesitate to do something unpopular. But a smart idealist will carefully measure public opinion before he does so, and will develop a strategy to persuade the electorate.
Ill outcomes result when timid, tepid governance leaves initiatives to the opposition. This reduces a political leader to a gambler, dependent on good times and luck to take him where he wants to go. The Chen administration has learned a great lesson from opposition boycotts and from its own mistakes in four years.
With a new mandate, the ruling party should reconstruct its contract with the people and try to convince them that the nation is heading in the right direction. By incorporating reforms, the DPP opened a gate to remold Taiwanese politics toward mature democracy.
The DPP's primary system has long been criticized by the public because it breeds factional nepotism. When the party won a second presidential election, the leadership introduced reforms that position the DPP as the foremost hope to deepen democracy in the country.
After his first term, Chen recognized the enormous difficulties involved in forging a national consensus on key policy areas, and the recent election has further polarized political forces.
To govern successfully, Chen must avoid serving his own party's extremists and ideologues. He must transcend party interests and appeal to political moderates, seeking common ground. If he can transcend special interests, then he can win primaries in his own party by appealing to moderate rank-and-file voters.
In politics, the most lethal wounds are inflicted from the rear. An elected president who seeks to reach beyond his party's base and appeal to the swing voters his electoral fortunes depend on invites assault from his own ranks.
Facing domestic and external challenges, Chen must display a stronger will to take care of majority interests, not just those of his own party. It is from the center that leaders must lead. Each party has its own center that is more moderate than its leaders or its campaign donors. By reaching out to that center, an elected leader can escape being the prisoner of his own party stalwarts.
Chen must keep in mind that leadership is a dynamic tension between where a politician thinks his country should go and where voters want it to go. Bold initiatives that leave the voters behind are not acts of leadership but of self-indulgent arrogance. The key is not to abjure change but to seek it with political wisdom and skills of persuasion.
Self-initiated and incessant reform is the most responsible way of building public trust in the DPP. The ruling party has served as a good example of this so far. How will the opposition meet the same challenge?
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