The 16th national congress was a good opportunity for the KMT to show people that it has the capacity for self reflection. It was also the party's last opportunity to do so before the year-end elections.
If the KMT wants to engage in deep self-reflection and rise from the ashes of recent defeats, it must understand what people dislike most about it. Black gold, factionalism, vote-buying, the huge amount of party property and a Leninist power structure are all heavy burdens carried by the KMT. In the short term, making inroads into these problems may be harmful to the KMT, but that is nevertheless the road that has to be taken for the party to achieve reform.
The general population should be able to understand that these structural problems are the most difficult to change -- the party has not yet put party property under trust a year after promising to do so; it has not made the slightest attempt to get rid of local criminal factions even though there are regulations to eliminate criminal behavior; candidates for election to the 16th central committee still gave gifts and bought votes; the party still retains a huge central committee; and elections to the committee remain "planned."
The general population is still waiting to see whether or not the KMT will become a shining phoenix and how it will reform itself.
Holding the 16th national congress in the middle of political and economic chaos that has gone on for several months truly presented the KMT with an opportunity to soar once again.
"Solidarity and a new beginning, saving the economy and uniting ethnic groups" are perfectly positive political slogans, but, to most people, the important thing is to know that the KMT is actually going to put these prosaic positions into
practice.
For the KMT itself, the most important thing is how to face these great challenges, one after the other, in an unavoidable political procession.
Joseph Wu is deputy director of the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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