The outcome of the democratic election was released amid polarized emotions of excitement and despair, and the new regime is setting off on its path with a paradoxical and tough beginning. With the furious protests in front of the KMT headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan is for the first time faced with a confrontational mass movement of a totally different stripe.
Political party leaders and civic organizations are learning to deal with the brand new protest pattern, which consists of New Party members, people who withdrew from the KMT, James Soong's (宋楚瑜) supporters, and people who are anti-KMT or anti-Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
What worries us is whether this new composition will elevate or sink the KMT. In other words, what really worries us is not the movement itself, but the large-scale political power struggle behind the protests.
The KMT's split and reform is an unavoidable trend. The problem is what kind of political power is going to lead the KMT and how it will affect Taiwan's democratic future.
If Chinese palace politics take control of the KMT once again, the world's wealthiest party will in the next four years return to its old path as a deified and anti-democratic authoritarian party. If the KMT can transfer power speedily and reelect leaders in a democratic way, the interaction between Taiwan's political parties at least can proceed under democracy.
Therefore, it will not only be the KMT's interior power struggle, but a power struggle on Taiwan's journey to democracy.
With regard to mass movements, Taiwan has turned from "fighting for democracy" to "resisting democracy."
From the tangwai (黨外) movement to the DPP, confrontational mass movements have taken place from time to time. But the DPP's long experience in the tangwai movement has won it a basic trust among activists.
In contrast, the KMT has never had experience in dealing with mass movements, so it will need to learn how to deal with the public. The way Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) dealt with protesters the other day strikes a raw nerve.
Nevertheless, the real problem lies in whether those political figures capable of settling the protests are willing to resolve the crisis or not. If neither the KMT nor the Soong camp were willing to negotiate with the protesters, but instead used them as a tool to embark on an internal power struggle, it will be difficult for Taiwan's future democracy to make them go away.
Sue Wang is the Chief Executive of the Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會).
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