Following the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) overwhelming victory over the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the recent county and municipal elections, some of the international media predicted that the KMT would succeed in forcing their pro-unification agenda through both the legislative and the executive branches of the government.
But the election results far more likely reflected a myriad of local factors, rather than voters' rejection of Taiwan's continuing democratization. In other words, the result may have signaled widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct of the messengers, but hardly of the message of democratization itself.
Still, this clarification mitigates neither the burden of a resounding defeat on the DPP, nor the crisis the defeat entails.
In reality, one of the first consequences of the elections was a clarion call from the public for top-to-bottom reform of the DPP. This was accompanied by a chorus of demands to further "deregulate" cross-strait relations.
There is no doubt that the DPP needs reform. After all, a political party's primary function is to perform well in elections. Every time there is a colossal failure, reform is a must.
Nevertheless, it is reasonable to question whether a party, with a leadership prone to factional squabbles is capable of truly transforming itself, without having the efforts disintegrate into endless recriminations, further aggravating the crisis.
Alternatively, perhaps a team of outside experts should be assembled to look into the existing structures and come up with recommendations for changes. One of the important questions that begs for an answer is how to remain competitive in local politics without emulating the KMT's culture of corruption.
Regarding cross-strait relations, what the KMT is offering focuses on short-term benefits, at the expense of Taiwan's long-term interests. Still, the KMT's message of an illusionary "peace and prosperity" has found a receptive audience among Taiwanese who are willing to temporarily cast aside their reservations about the KMT's past and present transgressions.
Conversely, given that the DPP is taking the long-term view of Taiwan's national security which in turn guarantees Taiwan's continuing democratization, the DPP's approach to cross-strait affairs often imposes on the public various degrees of short-term sacrifice -- be it time or profit.
Therefore, unless politicians and government officials from the DPP conduct themselves with a similar spirit of self-sacrifice, the DPP's message on cross-strait issues will go nowhere.
In other words, it serves little purpose for the pan-green camp to bemoan the general public's lack of farsightedness, or their collective amnesia about the KMT's 50-year abuse of power in Taiwan.
It is not surprising that the Taiwanese people would hold DPP politicians to a high standard, with a squeaky-clean record a minimum requirement.
All of this might also partially explain why so many people, including some within the DPP, are in favor of removing "burdensome" regulations. Yet, further deregulation is the wrong medicine for the DPP.
For one thing, the enhancement of the nation's long-term interests is the DPP's raison d'etre. If deregulation is found to be detrimental to those interests, it should be curtailed instead of being expanded.
Moreover, from a practical point of view, further deregulation will erode the DPP's hard-core support base, which is apparently willing to overlook the DPP's shortcomings as long as it is upholds its core values.
Conversely, given that President Chen Shui-bian (
Viewing these latest elections from a broader perspective, the pan-green camp should be able to take some comfort in the fact that it still garnered 42 percent of the votes even under "perfect storm" conditions for the KMT. The next major elections are two years away. And two years is an eternity given Taiwan's fickle voter sentiment.
The DPP should just shape up and stay the course.
Huang Jei-hsuan
California
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,