As the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) former chairman, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), becomes the premier and DPP Legislator Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) the vice premier, the Su-Tsai ticket for the 2008 presidential election has basically been set.
Although President Chen Shui-bian (
New Cabinet members have been appointed -- starting with the finance and economics ministers. This is an indication of the priorities of Su's new Cabinet. The prompt appointment of these two ministers highlights their significance, not to mention that the direction of cross-strait relations is involved.
What we really care about is whether Chen's policy of "active management, effective opening" can be truly implemented. This will be a test for Su, as well as Chen and his party.
Many of the new Cabinet members are Chen's intimates. This is hardly a surprise. He has served as head of state for almost six years and concurrently for a period of time as DPP chairman. All political appointees are considered his intimates more or less.
Besides, viewed from Taiwan's constitutional system, it is impossible for him to be a president in name only, or take a do-nothing attitude after his appointment of the premier.
Many of the former Cabinet members have gotten new posts. Former minister of the interior Su Jia-chyuan (
This shows the inseparability between the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan.
Moreover, this is Su's first time heading the central government. Hs only previous administrative posts were as commissioner of Pingtung and Taipei counties. Chen will certainly be Su's most important guide in his new position.
Building a strong record of administrative achievements is a must as the DPP faces three important elections over the next two years. Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for Chen and Su not to team up.
DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun has made his own arrangements -- appointing Lin Chia-lung (
This also marks the appearance of the party's "second echelon," as it is appointing those from the relatively new generation to strengthen itself internally, so as to consolidate a sustainable regime. If the party is strong, then the administration is strong, and vice versa.
The DPP's greatest challenge is surely the 2008 presidential election.
The challenge is related to the continuance of Taiwan's democratization and localization, and the question of whether self-awareness can defeat unification -- the ultimate goal of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The 2008 election will decide Taiwan's fate. For the Taiwanese people, who is elected president is not so important. What matters is that Taiwan win. Those who sing the demise of the country and criticize the government are all public enemies.
Chin Heng-wei is the editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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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,
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