Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) doesn’t look very much like a typical DPP member. This is not because she hasn’t been in the party long enough, but rather because she lacks the typical fortitude and fiery forcefulness of past DPP leaders. Fortitude and fiery forcefulness used to be necessary — how else could it have been possible to stand up to the pressures of martial law and gain government power in little over a decade after the party’s founding?
These traits allowed the DPP to gain power rapidly, but also caused big problems for the DPP’s rule. After the DPP came to power, the party — with the president in the lead — ran amuck and during its eight years in office, Taiwan was in a state of chaos. The traits that helped the party combat the pressures of martial law proved to be the biggest obstacle as the DPP has tried to regain public confidence after losing government power.
In 2008, the DPP elected Tsai, who didn’t really fit the party’s traditional mold, as its leader. It was the party’s first attempt at change and it was aimed at getting through a tough period. Tsai’s recent re-election as party chair with a record high 90 percent of the vote shows that the DPP supports her changes and her determination to regain government power in 2012.
It seems this change involves two main points: A clearer center-left position on economic issues and a steady and healthy cross-strait policy.
The DPP has always had a strong grassroots touch. The DPP’s first party platform was center-left. During its rule, the DPP also made inroads in establishing a social security system. However, that was not part of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) values.
In the early days of DPP rule, the “active opening-up” policy and other policies catering to business interests, as well as a series of scandals involving collusion between government officials and businesspeople, blurred the DPP’s political stance.
Now, using resistance against an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) and the drafting of a 10-year policy platform, Tsai, an academic far removed from the grassroots, is bringing the party back to concerning itself with the interests of the middle and lower classes.
We can see two interesting implications of the 10-year policy platform — the careful way in which it has been drafted has removed the party from the grassroots. However, by bringing the party’s policies back to center-left, she has also brought the party back closer to the grassroots level as well as the lower and middle classes.
The policy platform also shows an interesting duality in terms of cross-strait policy. The DPP is now moving closer to its supporters and standing firmly in opposition to the pan-blue camp’s position on sovereignty, while distancing itself from the radical grassroots style of the party’s “Resolution on Taiwan’s Future.”
After giving it some thought, members are likely to support these changes. In the 2005 mayoral and county commissioner elections, most of Chen’s favorites had fallen out of favor and they were not nominated for this year’s mayoral elections in the five special municipalities. After this series of losses, regardless of how determined he is, Chen will no longer be able to hold the DPP back from moving in a new direction. However, the party still has to face a few challenges.
First, some of the more aggressive party members and legislators need to be more delicate and effective in representing the party’s new direction.
Second, Tsai’s soft and detail-oriented policies and style are necessary, but they should not be allowed to weaken the party’s more fiery character, which is necessary to combat globalization’s potentially negative impact on disadvantaged groups and the dangerous pressures posed by the rise of China. The question is how to balance the two approaches.
Third, with strong party support and the consensus-building policy platform, Tsai should be able to shake off internal factions as well as vague and even conflicting policies.
A conservative party will always protect its vested interests and will therefore not seek any policy changes. However, for a party concerned with the interests and opinions of the lower and middle classes and with carrying out reform, internal freedom and diversity are necessary elements for continual improvement. Therefore, the DPP must carefully examine how it will go about balancing these two aspects.
After winning a landslide re-election as party chair, Tsai announced her candidacy for the Sinbei City mayoral election. The party has now nominated the candidates with the best chance to win the 2012 presidential election as well as the most trusted candidates for the November special municipality elections. Regardless of whether the candidates can win or are willing to immerse themselves in local elections, this is a most peculiar political maneuver.
While this was a strange move, it really made the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) feel threatened. A few days ago, the DPP set a new record when it improved its local government representation by winning the chairmanship elections on the irrigation councils in Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Yilan and Taoyuan counties. The party’s power and influence is now stronger in both the lower and higher levels of government.
Can the DPP create a new era for Taiwan? It now has new leadership, new direction, new grassroots support and even new momentum. The question remains as to how the party will overcome the new challenges it faces.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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