Amid an investigation into alleged misuse of the mayoral special allowance fund by Taipei Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), talk has picked up of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) replacing Ma on the 2008 presidential ticket. If the KMT backs Lien for a third run, this decision to turn back the clock would be a negative move.
Since taking over as KMT chairman a year ago, Ma's obsession with clean governance has appeared incompatible with the nature of the KMT and caused resistance within the party. He lacks a diplomatic touch, making it difficult for him to bridge rifts in his relations with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Lien. Over the past year, Ma has yet to realize most of his promised reforms and now his image has been further tarnished by the recent scandal.
But even if Ma has faltered, why Lien? His neighborly "ice-breaking" trips to China notwithstanding, what has he done to remake the KMT? Nothing. Even Lien's boast that he could convince China to buy 2,000 tonnes of surplus Taiwanese bananas proved a gross exaggeration. But luckily for the KMT, its ineptitude has been overshadowed by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) scandals.
If the majority of KMT members believe Ma isn't fit to continue leading the party, they should recall him according to party procedures. They should elect Lien as chairman instead of transferring power through shady deals. More than 40 years of KMT rule fostered a system in which seniority and rank were more important than ability, and officials simply waited for positions to fall into their lap. Young politicians squandered most of their time and energy pandering to their superiors and squeezing out competitors instead of working on things that mattered and earning public trust.
Lien represents an era of power struggles superceding national interests. This is very different from the DPP's style, which emphasizes that whoever wins votes wields power, and so encourages members to fight for support outside the party. This is why President Chen Shui-bian (
The KMT finally has a relatively young leader, although at 57 he's not really all that young. But with Ma facing trouble over his administrative negligence, the KMT has not responded by searching the party ranks for a capable leader from the younger generation. Instead, it is considering whether to pull Lien out of the recycling bin to represent the party in the 2008 presidential race. But as the KMT is not lacking in young talent, Lien's potential nomination only indicates that the party discounts the wisdom of voters, who have already rejected him twice in presidential elections.
Video footage of Houzaimen Elementary School students in China's Shaanxi Province chanting "Grandpa Lien, you're finally back!" during Lien's visit to China in May last year became Taiwan's most popular comedy clip. But the same chant in the KMT would be a horror movie. If Ma is not suitable to run for the presidency in 2008, then Lien is even more unsuitable, unless you are a DPP strategist. At least Wang would be a breath of fresh air.
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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