THE CURTAIN HAS just fallen on the KMT's 16th National Congress and the elections for the party's Central Advisory Council and its Central Committee. The event completely changed the party's nature.
In addition to introducing KMT nominees for the year-end legislative, mayoral, and county-commissioner elections, the congress also amended a number of provisions of the party's charter.
Besides a total abandonment of former chairman Lee Teng-hui's (
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Former Lee associate Liu Tai-ying (
A significant amendment to the KMT party charter disqualified both Lee Teng-hui and PFP Chairman James Soong (
Also of interest were rank-and-file calls for Lee's expulsion and a call to welcome back to the fold Lin Yang-kang (林洋港) and Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), expelled for running an independent campaign for the presidency and vice-presidency against party chairman Lee in 1996.
Party members also demanded that incumbent Chairman Lien Chan (
While the Central Committee may have avoided formally taking up the issue of Lee's expulsion, the issue was informally discussed throughout the congress. Seeing the danger of dealing with the issue, the party's secretary-general kept open discussion of Lee to a minimum.
Even so, anti-Lee sentiment ran high within the Central Advisory Committee. Four committee members demanded that the party cast aside personal sentiment and immediately expel Lee. There were also calls for the KMT, New Party, and PFP to join forces in defeating both Lee and President Chen Shui-bian (
The most startling aspect of the congress, however, was its revival of the KMT's identity as an alien political party. This "revived" party interprets Lee Teng-hui's nativized reconstruction of the KMT as having creating an ethnic rift. The ideology of this revived alien party now lies well outside the mainstream popular will.
The year-end legislative elections are crucial to the KMT. The KMT, PFP, and New Party have formed an alliance in an attempt to maintain a majority in the Legislative Yuan. The plan is to face up to President Chen in demanding a Cabinet organized by the opposition as a way of winning back executive control and to reduce President Chen to lame-duck status. In the event, President Chen's electoral chances two years later would be minimal at best.
To accomplish this goal, the opposition must win 85 out of the 168 directly elected seats in the Legislative Yuan (the remaining 57 seats being allocated according to parties' performance in the direct elections). In terms of realistic expectations, the KMT should aim to win 60 seats, and the PFP and the New Party together 20 seats.
The biggest blow to opposition alliance plans has been the organization of the TSU on a "Taiwan First" platform. The rift this has created within the KMT even further radicalizes the party, as members closer to mainstream public opinion gravitate away from the KMT to other political groupings.
Furthermore, the opposition alliance itself threatens KMT Chairman Lien's presidential electoral hopes two years from now, as PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who is no doubt considering a run of his own, has made repeated attempts to turn the alliance into his own private army.
The revival of the KMT as an alien regime has shaken the nativized camp within the party. As a result, party chairman Lien Chan went on the attack against the TSU during a speech at the 16th National Congress.
He accused the new party of luring KMT members under a nativized banner. Lien also emphasized that the amended party charter specifically includes a clause on "ethnic cohesion" as a way to heal division's within the party. Lien stated in his speech that the KMT is a democratic party that belongs to "all the people," superficially dealing with the changes that are ripping the party asunder.
Members of the Central Advisory Council passionately accused Lee of destroying the KMT's spirit through nativization and "Taiwan first" policies during his tenure. Council members also asked for a further look into the former chaiman's conduct and speech. The evolving anti-Lee campaign has returned the KMT to the bullishness of its past as an alien regime.
If the opposition succeeds in its plans to win a working legislative majority, the remainder of President Chen's tenure will likely be spent at the behest of an opposition-controlled Cabinet.
Huang Chu-wen (
Should the opposition alliance succeed in winning more than 85 legislative seats, a constitutional crisis would ensue from the inevitable no confidence vote and attempt to dissolve the legislature.
Taiwan's already fragile political structure would once again fall prey to selfish political struggle. Ethnic groups would once again become restless, and the political and economic environment would once again be devastated. Disorder would result from the ensuing political and ideological chaos.
This tension, the tension between "one China" and "Taiwan first" advocates, is Taiwan's ticking time bomb. It might even be called the "third rail" of Taiwanese politics.
Chinese propaganda on unification has been a fact of Taiwanese life since 1949. Historically, China's strategy may be divided into two phases.
The first phase began in 1949 and concluded with the end of the Chiang Ching-kuo regime. The second phase began with Lee's presidency and ended with Chen Shui-bian's presidency.
During the first phase, the Chinese Communist Party of China and the KMT fought a battle of words and ideas, and fought for international recognition. In the second phase, the battle over "one China" and "one China and one Taiwan" commenced.
Taiwan had four major political parties before the establishment of the Taiwan Solidarity Union -- the KMT, the DPP, the PFP, and the New Party.
The KMT, PFP, and the New Party follow the "one China" ideology, and take up two-thirds of the seats in the legislature.
Along with the ruling DPP, which now holds only one-third of the legislature, approximately 80 percent of Taiwanese voters accept the "Taiwan first" ideology. The fact is, however, that the ruling party only enjoys the support of about 40 percent of the voters.
The establishment of the TSU is essentially to add another 35 legislative seats to the "Taiwan first" camp. The hope is to make the legislature more reflective of the popular will, making the minority DPP government effectively a majority government.
Currently, China's unification drive showcases the use of Taiwanese businessmen with mainland investments as tools to coerce Taiwan into accepting Beijing's amorphous version of the "one China" principle.
China is at the same time using opposition lawmakers and scholars to pressure the Chen administration into accepting a similarly unclear 1992 doctrine under which the two sides may have agreed on the principle of "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation" -- "may have" because Beijing denies any such agreement when it suits it to do so.
Lien recently proposed a definition of "one China" based on a confederacy model, but the proposal was immediately rejected by Beijing.
Even KMT party elders strongly oppose the proposal, pointing out that "confederation" implies a voluntary alliance between two independent sovereignties. Obviously, future KMT policy won't be based on a "Taiwan first" outlook, and perhaps will even reject the idea of Taiwan's independent sovereignty.
To China, the so-called "one China" principle means essentially the acceptance of the "one country, two systems" arrangement now failing so miserably in Hong Kong. The KMT's so-called "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation" is nothing but a lie to the Taiwanese people. This so-called 1992 consensus on the proposal never existed.
It is impossible for President Chen to accept the KMT's self-serving lie of "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation," because his acceptance would mean the end of Taiwan. The TSU seeks to put into practice the popular will of the Taiwanese voter, and to help the people fully understand that "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation" is nothing but sugar-coated poison.
Should President Chen ever accept Beijing's "one China" principle, China would likely seek to convince the US that Taiwan had accepted the `One China' principle," and that therefore the Taiwan Relations Act should be scrapped. If that were to happen, the US would no longer be able to sell defensive arms to Taiwan, and the future of the nation would no longer be decided by the people.
President Chen, the DPP and the TSU should know better.
Lee Kuei-chang is the president of the Taipei Times.
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