In a recent interview Vice President Annette Lu
Let me make it clear right from the start that as a Taiwanese woman I have nothing but respect for Lu's tireless efforts on behalf of our gender. Chinese culture has long held women back, denying us our rightful opportunities in education, business and other professions, so her election victory was a victory for all women.
As a pioneer of Taiwan's democracy movement, Lu has also contributed to the attainment of the freedoms we all currently enjoy, and her success in the election last year should have been a high point in a long and distinguished career. Sadly, Lu's triumph has been short-lived.
As Lu herself admitted in the interview, her problems started on the very night of her election. After the election results were announced, Lu expressed a desire to address DPP supporters at the victory rally, but was told that she would have to let A-bian
Despite pre-election promises that she would have a meaningful role, Lu claimed that she was soon shut out of the decision making process. Not only was she given no responsibilities commensurate with her talents, she was even expected to forego her right to speak her mind in public. From the selection of the Cabinet to deliberations over the choice of premier, Lu was completely excluded from participation.
I admit to having a great deal of sympathy for Lu's predicament,
for any person with her talent and drive would feel frustrated if stuck in a similar situation. Lu, however, chose to go public with her frustration, and to many of her supporters this seemed like a betrayal of both A-bian and the DPP.
When Lu accepted the nomination as the DPP's vice presidential candidate, she should have had a more realistic view of what she would be able to accomplish as a vice president. I am not sure what A-bian and/or his advisers promised Lu in exchange for her participation, but given her personality there must have been at least some offer of a real and meaningful role. Nonetheless, Lu should not have harbored any illusions about her ability to get her hands on any of the real levers of power. In Taiwan, the post of vice president has always been a weak one, occupied by the president's understudy and carrying no power of its own.
In the US, the vice president normally has an office, a staff, and little or nothing to do except attend fund-raising functions. Al Gore was an exception, having far more responsibilities than most other deputy heads of state in the western world. Dick Cheney will also likely prove to be a powerful vice president -- at least most Americans hope so.
In general, however, vice presidents are destined to play second fiddle, and like children at dinner parties, they should be seen but not heard. Lu has apparently never taken note of this.
Lu has yet to grasp that politics
is all about teamwork. Almost as soon as the new administration took office, Lu started to speak out on a variety of issues, ranging from the decision making process in the Presidential Office to the nature of cross-strait relations. While we cannot expect the vice president to take a vow of silence for the next four years, it is assumed that she will support the president's policies, at least publicly.
Lu, however, has not held her tongue; on the contrary, she has used every opportunity to vent her grievances to the ever-eager press pack. The Chinese language press, most of which is openly hostile to A-bian's government, has been quick to play up Lu's criticism of the president.
At a time when Chen Shui-bian
Indeed, at times it seemed that Lu was on the opposition payroll, so frequent were her attacks on her own administration. This tendency to vent her frustrations publicly led many people to believe that she was actually capable of making the infamous phone call to The Journalist
In her latest interview, Lu also informed the people of Taiwan that relations between her and A-bian have "not been harmonious," and that she did not intend to run for re-election. One might well expect to hear such talk about not standing for re-election from someone at the end of a trying term, but Lu has served barely 10 months in office and her comments therefore sound like the whining of a spoiled child.
It is a sad fact of politics in Taiwan that individual ambitions almost always come before the good of the group.
Lu's public venting of her frustration seems to indicate that she too puts her own interests ahead of the party, and this is a major disappointment to those of us who thought that the DPP politicians were somehow different from their KMT predecessors.
Taiwan's people paid a high price in blood, sweat and tears to get the DPP to where it is today, and the very least we should expect of our leaders is that they work as a team.
As a democratic activist with impeccable credentials, and more importantly, as a tireless campaigner for women's rights, Lu must rise above the petty political squabbling and show Taiwan what mature, altruistic public service is all about. If that means biting her tongue and playing a secondary role, so be it.
Lu has much to offer the people of Taiwan, but she should attempt to do what she can without contributing to the political instability that is inexorably eroding public faith in the DPP government.
If Lu's ego will not let her play a supporting role in A-bian's administration, then she should resign immediately and spare her disappointed supporters another three years of snide criticisms and self-pitying complaints in the press.
Bonnie Hsieh is a freelance writer based in Taipei.
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