After co-opting the DPP's package of reforms and carrying them out over a 12-year, uninterrupted rule, President Lee Teng-hui has finally, peacefully transferred power to the opposition party. This change of regimes will pave the way for future exchanges of power.
Many had issued loud calls for Lee to step down as party chairman after the KMT's unprecedented defeat in the elections, and various opinions about Lee's 12 years of rule have begun to emerge. Once lionized by the public to the point where many said Taiwan had a "complex" about Lee, his fall from power will be hard for many to accept.
Lee's contribution to Taiwan is not in question, and people will long remember him for his work towards Taiwan's nativization, democratization, and merging of Taiwanese society into a more cohesive community. However, Lee will also go down in history books as being the KMT leader who used local factions and criminal elements to finally bring down the conservative elements within the party, leading to "black gold" politics which still exist today.
The democratic reforms pushed through by Lee include new elections for legislators, and direct presidential elections -- precisely the goals, in fact, that DPP activists went to prison for not long ago. There is almost no difference between Lee's political line and that of the DPP, except for the fact that Lee successfully prolonged the KMT's lifespan, while the DPP was pushed to the margins of Taiwanese politics.
The KMT should not disappear from the scene so quickly, however. Taiwan's multi-party political system requires that there be opposition parties to balance the ruling party. If the DPP blunders after it takes power, the KMT or other opposition parties should replace them, and if the DPP performs well, then the KMT should get some of the plaudits for successfully checking the ruling party.
We can only hope that power changes in Taiwan will continue to occur based on this simple rule.
Ho Jung-hsing is chief of the city desk at Liberty Times.
RSS