Wed, Aug 18, 2004 page8

• Editorial: Don't rely on parties' self-restraint

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  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has publicly called for the next speaker of the legislature not to hold office in a political party. This has led the blue camp to retort that the president should also be neutral and not hold party office. Yesterday, Chen also asked that the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development not to be a servant of political parties. This is a good trend, and it could serve as a new wave of "de-politicization" of Taiwanese society.

  Taiwan is a highly politicized society. This is the result of the comprehensive control exercised by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the past, which extended through government organizations, commerce, religion, education and grassroots community organizations. It was almost impossible for any organization to escape this pernicious political influence. Because of this omnipresence of politics, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration cannot make any appointment or implement any policy without it being put under a microscope to be interpreted in terms of its political significance. This hypersensitivity to the political implications of every action has led to many unnecessary political conflicts, tensions between ethnic groups and social unrest. To heal Taiwan of this hypersensitivity it is necessary to reduce the extent of political influence in all aspects of our society.

  In the case of the president and the legislative speaker, there is nothing in the law that forbids their holding a concurrent party office, unlike the heads of the Ministry of Justice, the Examination Yuan and the Control Yuan. Whether the president and legislative speaker can hold party office is not a legal question, but a question of whether it is proper. The two posts are powerful positions, and to attain them requires the wholehearted support of a political party. Once a person has attained such a position, they obviously have great influence in the political party that supported them, and it is natural for them to become nominal or actual leaders of their party. To ask such people to abjure all party affairs after they win public office goes against the nature of politics. As it would greatly test the ambitions of the individual and create enormous difficulties in the operation of the political parties, such a move is likely to encounter considerable resistance.

  For example, when Chen came to power in 2000, he vowed to withdraw from party affairs to become a "president for all the people" (全民總統). But as the relationship between the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, and the DPP degenerated into chaos, he broke his promise and served as the party's chairman concurrently, centralizing power. It takes enormous self-discipline and legal restrictions to achieve a political neutrality that goes against the real workings of the political process. But after years of experimentation, we know that it is in fact almost impossible for politicians and parties to constrain themselves. For a president or a legislative speakers to transcend his political party's policies and perform his duties with complete impartiality is virtually impossible.

  Taiwan should therefore use this opportunity to discuss the issue and reach a consensus on whether the president and the legislative speaker should take party posts concurrently, and if not, write it into law. This is perhaps the best way for us to reduce political entanglement regarding the duties of future presidents and speakers. Besides, to avoid political forces from permeating media, business, academic, religious and other social circles, we should create a "political party law" (政黨法) -- instead of today's Civic Societies Organization Law (人民團體組織法) -- to regulate the behavior of political parties and clarify the legitimacy of party-run media, enterprises and organizations, through which political parties project their influence. Demanding that politicians and parties discipline themselves is neither pragmatic nor feasible. Only by making regulations to reduce political disputes can we cure Taiwan's political problems.
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