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Is a return to the old ways really 'reform'?

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won a decisive victory over the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) on promises to save Taiwan's economy, successfully following the example of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Ma's victory shows that after two power transitions Taiwan is a mature democracy, but it is also another example of conservatives returning to power in East Asia's new democracies.

Since 2006, a wave of conservative governments have returned to power in what seems an unstoppable trend.

In Japan in October, Yasuo Fukuda, representing the conservative wing of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was jointly promoted by the party's factions, ending six turbulent years under premiers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe. When the liberal faction called the shots in the LDP, Fukuda belonged to the party fringe, but as the Japanese public clamored for economic revival, he became the one person who could handle disputes between party factions.

In South Korea in November, Lee, the "CEO president" with an economic bent, beat the liberal government that had ruled for 10 years to supposedly become the savior of South Korea's economy.

In Taiwan, presidential candidate Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was elected president after promising to bring back Taiwan's economic competitiveness. From an international perspective, the KMT's return to power is not a result of voters preferring change, but rather that they forget easily; current troubles outweigh past woes, and rather than saying Taiwan's voters have changed their minds, maybe we should say they have responded to the return of conservative forces throughout East Asia, by filling the last missing gap for East Asia's returning conservatives.

From a broader perspective, Japan's LDP, South Korea's Grand National Party (GNP) and the KMT all share a common historical background. They were all the driving force behind national economic growth after World War II and created developmental economies. But they were unable to adjust to the global wave of democratization in the 1990s, and one by one they lost power and were replaced by liberal forces.

But after these liberal forces came to power, they over-emphasized political reform and transitional justice while ignoring the transformation of the economic system and the relationship between government and industry. They pushed hard for localization while failing to recognize external market changes The populations of these countries were thus unable to reap the benefits of economic growth and instead had to live with increasing income disparities. As the economy faltered, voters brought back their old governments.

So is the return of conservatism really a panacea to save the economy? The examples of Japan and South Korea, which have already experienced two power transitions, imply that the results fall short of expectations.

In South Korea, Lee became a presidential candidate for the GNP thanks to a compromise between the old and new party factions, so that after being elected, Lee appointed people not based on skill, but gave priority to balancing intra-party forces, a rather large impediment to implementing his economic policy and ideals.

Conservatism is not wrong, nor is bringing back an old government. But it is worrying when old parties with the same old ideas and faces bring back old forces under the flag of reform. This is not what voters had in mind when voting for the old parties.

Tsai Zheng-jia is a research fellow at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations.

TRANSLATED BY ANNA STIGGELBOUT
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