People might be curious as to why the DPP is celebrating its 14th anniversary in such a low-key manner. Some members of the media have criticized the DPP for not acting like a ruling party, while in fact ours is the sort of humble attitude that befits a ruling party. Some even question whether we have lost sight of our goals and dreams. In response to their questions, as deputy secretary-general of the DPP, I would like to offer some explanations.
In the past 14 years, the DPP has become a popular party and successfully completed its historic mission to achieve a rotation of ruling parties (政黨輪替). It has done so through its efforts to abolish the bans on political parties (黨禁) and the press (報禁), to end the martial law era and to promote elections in the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly, as well as direct elections for the presidency. In other words, the DPP has continued to promote the development of democratic systems in Taiwan in order to pursue our sovereignty and freedom. All of the above aims can be categorized as the DPP's "immutable demands."
On the other hand, what does the party regard as "mutable?" The biggest change is that the DPP has transformed its role from that of opposition party to that of ruling party. In other words, as the nation's ruling party, we must now set about realizing our ideals with all the administrative resources at our disposal today. The DPP's ideals can be divided into two categories: social and political reforms.
As far as social reform is concerned, the DPP has repeatedly stressed the importance of promoting voluntary work, community-building, cultural conservation, equal rights for women, environmental protection and so on. The party is obliged to live up to its promises to the people since it is now in power. This is also a turning point for the DPP to start building a healthy society. After all, the pursuit of democracy and freedom is not enough; we need further to improve people's living environment as well. That's what real "progress" is.
As for political reforms, although people are not very satisfied with our performance over the past few months, we have achieved some of our goals. The DPP has, for example, removed the "small construction subsidy for legislators" (立法委員小型工程補助款) from its draft national budget. Also, the government has begun to sweep out "black gold" (掃除黑金) politics. After the DPP took office, for instance, former Pingtung County Council Speaker Cheng Tai-ji (鄭太吉), who murdered a man in front of the man's mother, was executed expeditiou
sly after the case had dragged on for years because of Cheng's powerful political influence and connections. The government is also now re-investigating the murder of the former navy captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓), a case which involves many high-ranking naval officials. Because of these efforts, people will start to see results in all of these areas soon.
A positive influence will also be felt in Taiwan's political circles. The primary goal in promoting political reforms is to gain people's recognition and support so that the DPP can win more seats in the next legislative election and become the majority in the Legislative Yuan by next year. That's the new goal of the DPP.
As for the DPP's "Forum for Party and Political Negotiation" (FPPN, 黨政協商會報), this new mechanism needs more time to become a well-developed organization. As the executive secretary of the forum, I would like to stress that the DPP has its own culture of diversity, which is different from the KMT's mechanism of party and political negotiation. The new government is only, moreover, four months old. We need a longer period to develop a mature mechanism for negotiation. Because of the structure of the Legislative Yuan, the DPP, as a minority party, needs to negotiate its policies, not only within the party but also with other parties. It cannot carry out its policies alone. Our political reforms have just started to take off. Please give us more time!!
As for the party's anniversary celebration, just as we said in our advertisement recently, keeping a low profile shows humility. Since the Sept. 28 anniversary was only a week after the one-year anniversary of the 921 earthquake, we didn't think it was an appropriate time for celebration. Instead, we chose to honor our many volunteers yesterday in order to thank them for their contributions, as well as to appeal to more DPP members to undertake voluntary work. In the coming year, we will organize more activities to promote social and political reforms. The 928 party anniversary is just a beginning. The DPP has not lost its spirit as the ruling party, nor has it lost its goals for a brighter future. I would urge the public to accept these explanations.
Hsu Yang-ming is the deputy secretary-general of the DPP.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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