KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon. We can perhaps borrow his line and say, "One small step for Lien, one giant leap for party politics in Taiwan."
The significance of the Hsieh-Lien session is threefold. First, it is an important milestone in the positioning of parties after the presidential election. The KMT, with its vast array of resources dwarfing all other opposition parties, used to be extremely high-handed in its attitude toward them. It was not easy for previous DPP chairmen like Huang Hsin-chieh
Now the KMT and the DPP have changed roles. The fact that Lien volunteered to meet with Hsieh shows that the parties are finally beginning to grasp reality and leave behind the passions, competition and conflicts of the election campaign to play the role assigned them by the electorate.
Second, Hsieh's meeting with Lien, as well as his talk with the New Party's Hao Lung-ping
President Chen Shui-bian (
Third, the Hsieh-Lien meeting ensures that the KMT will no longer shun Chen's proposed round-table meeting between the chairpersons of all the parties. The two men also agreed to arrange a get-together for their secretary generals to discuss the agenda for the round-table talks -- thereby eliminating its biggest obstacle and providing an opportunity to break the current political impasse.
Taiwan politics is gradually evolving toward normal party politics, which means having the parties take collective responsibility instead of relying on the ability and promises of a single individual. Party politics was a prime focus in the early stages of the recent presidential election campaign. But James Soong
Whether supra-party or cross-party, they are both deviations from the normal world of politics. Since Chen has so far failed to find a remedy for the impasse blocking his "politics for all the people" he will have to come back to the work of realizing party politics. No matter what zero-sum game the parties played during the campaign, they must now return to the normal course of joint action.
The Hsieh-Lien meeting was short and ritualistic, but it was the first step in putting Taiwan firmly on the course of normal party politics.
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