One year ago yesterday was the fateful night that changed Taiwan's political dynamics of forever -- the night Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) won the presidential election, setting in motion the first democratic transfer of power. However, the performance of the political parties over the past year in this new political environment has been dismal. With all the changing roles, the parties act as if they are still playing dress-up at a children's party.
Unable to change its "opposition party" mentality and outnumbered in the legislature, the DPP acts like a kid trying to run around in his mom or dad's shoes, but cries when he trips and falls. The epitome of this was the DPP's participation in the Feb. 24 anti-nuclear rally. Then there is the behavior of some ministry heads who lambast their own ministries as if they were opposition lawmakers -- such as Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭).
However, the biggest mistake the DPP has made was to let its relations with its rivals become so polarized that the crisis over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) led to an opposition alliance. Doesn't the DPP realize its legislative minority is a major impediment to its rule, making a political alliance imperative? Isolated at the legislature, the DPP is now powerless to implement its policies.
Opinion polls have repeatedly shown the DPP trailing behind the People First Party in popular support. One small consolation for the ruling party is that its nemesis has performed no better.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has said that many people are beginning to "miss the KMT's rule" and that he is sure the party will retain a legislative majority in the end-year election and then win back the presidency in 2004. The surveys, however, show the KMT trailing far behind the DPP and PFP. Why? One explanation is that while people may think their life was better one year ago, the Lien-led KMT has failed to capitalize on that discontent. It has not won back popular support because it remains out of touch with the desires of most people in Taiwan.
By toadying up to China and the PFP, the KMT has shed the last remnants of Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) influence, repelling many of those who supported Lee's policies. Yet it has failed to win new converts due to a lack of innovative policy proposals and a lack of perceived success at either reforming itself or Taiwan's political system. The KMT is also clueless when it comes to acting as an opposition party. What is the connection between the KMT lawmakers' personally insulting diatribes against government officials and supervision of government? If the DPP is playing dress-up, the KMT is the kid sulking in the corner, refusing to choose a costume because someone else has the one he wanted.
Then there is the PFP. At first, we were baffled by its ability to lead in the polls. Has the PFP ever clearly proposed any important policy?
Then we realized that the PFP is a tabula rasa. Because it hasn't had to perform, people are still freely transferring their expectations onto it. The PFP is the kid who can't decide what he wants to be ... so he just throws a sheet over his head. The only difference is that there is a mug-shot of James Soong (宋楚瑜) pinned to the sheet. Soong is the personal embodiment of PFP. But without Soong, what is there? Talk about the emperor's new clothes!
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