Editorial: Has change overtaken Lien?

For a simple answer to the question of why Vice President Lien Chan's (連戰) election campaign is flagging, simply look at what happened on Friday. Lien went to pay his respects to Lin Yang-kang (林洋港), a former president of the Judicial Yuan and an ousted KMT party elder. Perhaps this was motivated by the Taiwan political tradition of shaking hands with the grand old men of one's party, which Lin is, despite his latter-day alienation. Then again, it might be an election ploy. After all, Lin ran as an independent presidential candidate in 1996 on a platform advocating the seeking of a rapprochement with China as the nation's primary goal, rather than Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) Taiwan first-ism. Perhaps Lien was trying to win back some KMT "non-mainstream" support by cozying up to one of that faction's iconic figures.

The main problem here is that James Soong (宋楚瑜) was there before him. Soong visited Lin on Nov. 8 after going down to Taichung to take part in a memorial service for victims of the 921 earthquake.

Lien's other bold venture on Friday was to tell a bunch of visiting journalists that he is eager to visit China -- "to visit the mainland, before or after the inauguration, to embark on a journey of peace under the precondition that the benefits and dignities of all the 22 million people in Taiwan are secured" was the way Lien's office flashed this out yesterday.

Well, that sounds pretty familiar too. The DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was, of course, the most recent proponent of a visit to China, and the one who first brought up the possibility of its happening prior to inauguration. But it was Lee Teng-hui who came up with the "journey of peace" formula, which was the highlight of his inauguration speech in May 1996.

Other men's ideas, other men's gestures, other men's political clothes; no wonder Lien's campaign is flagging. Admittedly, his new campaign team has only been on the job for a couple of weeks; they might say that expecting bold new policy statements at this time is a little premature. But Lien has been on the job for the past four years. Perhaps only his would-be nemesis Soong ever doubted that Lien would be the KMT's March 2000 candidate. Lien has had a long time to prepare his position, to hone the vision of Taiwan that he is going to have to try to sell to an electorate that, whether justifiably or not, was not very impressed by his performance as premier, and appears to have lost its taste for the traditional KMT electoral promise of "more of the same."

Quite why that promise no longer holds attraction is an interesting question that we expect to hear more of. Is it that people really are fed up with politics as usual, that democracy has failed to give them the system of government they wanted and now they are eager for a sea change in party politics? Or is it that it simply cannot be politics as usual because "as usual" means more of Lee Teng-hui, and that is an option that is not available.

One thing, however, is certain. It is that the time when the KMT, alone of any political party in the world, could win elections by promising people not something better, but no significant change, has passed. From his performance so far it appears that Lien Chan has not realized this yet. If he is to win, he must realize it, and act on it, soon.