With an eye to what could happen in the legislative elections in December, opinion leaders have already started to take a hard look at the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative primaries, held on Sunday, which have been overshadowed by accusations of bribery. Many fear that the DPP leaders will let the presidential election victory go to their heads, to the detriment of the political process.
All DPP personnel with responsibility for campaign matters should review reports of wrongdoing with the utmost care, giving no leeway to those who are found to be in any way involved in bribery. They must do this to ensure that the people of Taiwan are not defrauded of their hopes in this election. And in the event that irregularities are discovered, the DPP should bravely face its faults and persevere in the work of reforming the party.
Currently DPP party regulations only bar people with criminal connections from becoming candidates; it has no regulations to bar people with a criminal record of financial misconduct. This loophole can easily attract undesirable characters and their associates who wish to use their wealth to acquire political power, and who take this opportunity to seek nomination to become legislators at large. If such a person won with a large majority in the primary, then the legislative election might become shrouded in rumors detrimental to the DPP.
Seeing the Chinese National Party's (KMT) and the People First Party's (PFP) criticisms of the DPP primaries in the news media, it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. A closer look at these two parties reveals an even uglier situation. The two biggest opposition parties, while discussing a merger, don't even have systems in place for holding primaries, and no one knows whether they will hold any. Despite finding themselves in this situation, they still have the nerve to criticize the DPP's primary system.
After two consecutive presidential-election losses, the KMT still suffers from an almost total lack of intra-party democracy. All decisions are made by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The PFP's internal democratic mechanism is even more laughable. The party has been established for more than four years since it split from the KMT, but it has not yet established a central standing committee. Even its party representatives were all appointed by Chairman James Soong (
The establishment of a healthier democratic mechanism is indispensable if the nation's domestic politics are to get onto the right track. Obviously, the establishment of internal democratic mechanisms in all parties is crucial to achieving this goal. Otherwise, how can people rely on party leaders who have no democratic sense to defend Taiwan's democratic system in the future?
Perhaps the KMT and the PFP should take a close look at themselves before laughing at the DPP. The two parties should work harder to build their internal democratic mechanisms so that Taiwan can get rid of the shadow of oligarchy forever.
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