As all four of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential hopefuls have announced their bids for the party's nomination, analysts said the party should hold a public primary rather than relying on closed negotiations to determine its candidate for next year's presidential election.
After registration for the primary ended on Friday, the four bigwigs began to disagree over how a candidate should be chosen. In a bid to help along the process, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) met with the four candidates on Friday and was scheduled to meet with them again tomorrow.
It originally seemed Chen would simplify the nomination process by suggesting that the two candidates leading in opinion polls be nominated as the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
During Friday's meeting, however, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun, who is lagging in the polls, strongly opposed selecting the party's candidate in closed negotiations, while Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) supported the idea.
Yu insisted a primary should be held, saying that party unity depended on using democratic means to choose a candidate.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), director of Soochow University's department of political science, agreed, saying that the DPP should select its presidential candidates via a primary rather than mediation.
Differentiation
Lo said the DPP should differentiate itself from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which looked set to decide its candidates through closed talks.
A public primary was a normal procedure in a democracy, Lo said, because it allowed candidates to make clear their positions on major issues.
Negotiations, on the other hand, were tantamount to dividing the spoils among potential candidates and did not benefit the nation's democratic development.
If the DPP holds a primary, as seems probable, the candidates can be expected to participate in public debates.
The Taiwan Society is planning to organize two debates this month.
Su and Hsieh, however, have objections to participating in a debate not organized by the DPP, because they believe the pro-independence nature of the society could use such a debate to highlight issues that put them at a disadvantage.
Lo said the significance of a public primary was that it was democratic and transparent and about selecting the best candidate to represent the party's position and win the election.
If the KMT in closed talks nominates former chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to run as the presidential and vice presidential candidates, that would be undemocratic, Lo said.
Although Lo opposed negotiations to choose a presidential candidate, he said he was not against the party negotiating on the details of a candidate's election platform.
Political commentator Paul Lin (
"If that is the case, negotiations would be a better choice," he said, adding that the first debate organized by the Taiwan Society on March 24 would be worth watching.
Lin attributed the DPP's hesitation on holding a public primary to the differences between Taiwan's democratic culture and that of the US.
`More tolerant'
"While Western culture is more tolerant toward differing opinions and criticism, we tend to be less liberal," he said, citing the example of Chen and Hsieh.
Hsieh has constantly been compared with his long-time friend and political competitor. The two have developed a complicated relationship since 1994 when Hsieh decided to withdraw from the second stage of the party's primary in the run-up to the Taipei mayoral election after narrowly losing to Chen in the first round.
In 1996, Hsieh ran for vice president on the DPP ticket with former presidential candidate Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), but the duo lost.
As the KMT was poised to nominate its presidential candidate through negotiations, Lin said it would be to the DPP's advantage to use a democratic process to select its presidential candidates.
"It would send out a clear message that the DPP is a party dedicated to reform and democracy, while the KMT still holds on to closed-door politics," he said.
Citing last year's election for KMT chairman, Lin said former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) exemplified the party's fear of democratic elections.
While Lien wanted to remain in power, he was afraid of competing against Ma because of Ma's popularity, Lin said.
Lien was interested in returning to the chairmanship after Ma quit, but did not want to go through the election process, he said.
Backed by Ma, former KMT acting chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) capitalized on Lien's fear and took the opportunity to block Lien's comeback, he said.
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