On Sunday afternoon, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) announced that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had invited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to form a new Cabinet during their meeting the day before. Ma also said that the opposition camp was willing to negotiate with the president over the issue. Wang later said that during his meeting with the president he had actually recommended Ma for the premier's position.
However, the Presidential Office responded immediately to this, stating that the president had not invited Wang to form a Cabinet, and that he hoped to meet Ma in order to exchange opinions with him on national affairs.
Did or will Chen invite Wang to form a Cabinet? This question should be answered with regard to the 2000 transfer of power. With a Legislative Yuan formed by a minority ruling party and a majority opposition party, if Chen really allows the KMT to form a Cabinet, he will not only be giving up the Cabinet but also the entire administrative right, and the opposition will "take it all," as the president said before. By giving up power like this, the president would become nothing but a figurehead. Therefore, his invitation to Wang is certainly not "party-to-party." Plus, since the three-in-one elections, the pan-blue camp only enjoys a slim legislative majority. If the speaker is willing to help, the current situation of a minority ruling camp is likely to be reversed, and Taiwan's political situation is likely to move forward in a positive way.
The big question is, would Wang dare to leave the KMT in order to fight for Taiwan and himself? He has very little space within the party after his defeat by Ma in the chairmanship election. Today, Ma has no rivals as leader of the pan-blue camp, and appears to be their only candidate for the 2008 presidential election. At present, its seems unlikely that Wang would even be nominated as Ma's running mate. If he accepted Chen's invitation, he would be creating a new path for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as well as a new political career for himself. Unfortunately, it looks like he is still following Ma's lead and is unable to take bold action. With this in mind, Wang seems unlikely to accept the challenge, and so even if his political career does not come to an end, he is now firmly under Ma's control.
Wang's recommendation to make Ma premier was in itself absolutely absurd. If Chen invited Ma, the KMT chairman, to form a Cabinet, Ma's party would suddenly become the ruling party and Chen would be president in name only. Is that reasonable? In that case, why would Wang say so? Was he demonstrating his sincerity to Ma? Or was he "throwing a stone to clear the path," as the Chinese saying goes? The former seems to be more likely.
As for Ma, he quickly announced the news of Chen's invitation to Wang, to highlight Wang's frankness. He also met Wang the next morning to demonstrate that it is impossible for him to leave the KMT. Meanwhile, the Presidential Office issued a news release denying Wang's claim about the invitation. Even if Wang's claim was true, the possibility does not exist anymore. Wang doesn't dare to act on his own, and the proposed "party-to-party" negotiations are unlikely to occur. Even a Chen-Ma meeting is not very probable, quite apart from the fact that such a meeting is unlikely to produce much of significance.
To sum up, in the remainder of Chen's presidential term, he should act purposefully to maximize his administrative power, and do what he can. By doing so, he will win the Taiwanese people's support and may find a way out of his current predicament.
Chin Heng-wei is the editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS