What's gotten into the KMT? To settle a five-week-old dispute over the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee, it gave up control of the lawmaking body's automatic teller machine to a bunch of DPP and New Party puritans who wouldn't know what to do with an NT$5 million hung bao if it was slapped in their face. Proof that the apocalypse is upon us, or what?
Or maybe it's just the forces of democratic politics and market-oriented economics working their magic stronger than usual in the corridors of power in Taiwan.
As in most cases of apparent breakthroughs in politico-economic deadlocks among Taiwan's decision-makers, the answer is hard to come by so soon after the event. We'll have to wait and see what the new finance committee does. But it looks promising. There are now some good, principled, capable people on that committee who will be able to influence the course of financial-sector reform over the remainder of the legislature's current session. Here's hoping they're able to fend off the intense pressure that's sure to come from some of their colleagues, not to mention their colleagues' brothers and fathers.
Actually, it's been a pretty good week for The Reformers. Taiwan Fertilizer was given a new board of directors to replace the bunch that had been using (formerly, ha! ha!) state assets to gamble with the company's stock price. The Telecoms Law was finally passed, which allows foreign telecoms firms to take a majority share in their joint ventures. Mobile-banking services were approved by the Ministry of Finance, which should shake up the banking industry. And last, but not least, reports indicated that Taiwan's monopolistic insurance giants are facing a bleak future with the imminent liberalization of the industry.
How did all this happen so quickly? It's obvious: market-oriented economics and democratic politics -- the twin pillars on which this nation's post-war development has been built. Why else do you suppose Taiwan's troubles seem so insignificant compared with the rest of Asia's at present? Because it's still sticking to the model better than anyone else.
Okay, so at a push, South Korea comes close in comparison. Popularly elected Kim Dae Jung appears to be doing the kind of job that Chen Shui-bian (3?糮? dreams of: breaking up cartels and settling scores with a bunch of horridly corrupt business titans. But would you want to be in South Korea now that its economy looks so wobbly again?
I thought not. Not when you get to sit here in Taiwan, flipping through more than 100 cable TV channels, a third of which are broadcasting images of legislators kissing and making up after the whips of the KMT and DPP legislative caucuses had literally duked it out for control of the finance committee's seats. Although Elmer Feng (
If that's not enough proof for you of just how quickly Taiwan's democracy is maturing (the fact that Elmer wasn't beaten to death on the way home the night before), then you could easily have read one of a dozen national daily newspapers over the past week, each filled with sensational "insider" news about the Taiwan Fertilizer scandal. What they would have told you was that, political intrigue aside, the ultimate reason for the sacking of the company's chairman was that he broke the law.
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