Under pressure from the popular movements against nuclear energy and the cross-strait service trade agreement, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has finally decided to allow broader participation in the decisionmaking process.
The party has chosen Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to serve as vice chairmen, thus promoting them into its power center. However, this formal change in the chain of command will not help reverse the ongoing decline in the KMT’s popularity.
There is more than one reason for the crushing defeats that the KMT has suffered in recent years.
Apart from President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) style of doing things, the crucial problem is the party’s lack of core beliefs about how to govern. It has failed to establish concrete aims and values in governance. In all things, its only concern is the present reality: It does not think about what an ideal society should look like.
Under this pragmatic model of governance, the KMT is in general prepared to concede anything and persist in nothing when disputes arise over policies. Faced with street protests that have gone on for months and on several occasions when it has been besieged by its opponents, the KMT has opted to make major concessions to calm the public down.
Many are puzzled a party that is always claiming to be in service of its country and people cannot arouse the enthusiasm required to get the public to favor their decisions. The simple reason is that when the governing party has no principles to stand by, society will have no aspirations and the public will have nothing to support.
It seems as though the only thing that exists in the KMT’s mind is the harsh realities it sees, while it has no lofty political ideology. Many things that the governing party does are done because it is backed into a corner, but giving away too much will cause an organization’s values to fade and it will lose its soul.
The factor that has allowed the KMT to govern the country for long periods in the past is the image it has cultivated of maintaining stability.
That image has led many people to go along with the party for the sake of peace of mind. However, a series of half-baked reforms, while failing to resolve social injustices, have also shaken the foundations of social stability. The economic difficulties and social malaise that the nation faces call for the rise of some kind of political ideology.
The movements that have arisen in recent months — from the Sunflower movement to anti-nuclear campaigns — have been idealistic in nature, however controversial their tactics may have been. Their emphasis is on what the world should be like, rather than what it is like. History shows that such idealistic worlds always inspire considerable fascination with songs, poetry, dreams and stories.
Idealism is usually confined to certain social groups and classes and does not often appear as inclusive and universal. Hence, such “utopian” dreams have often ended in failure. Nonetheless, popular support has given them a special prominence in Taiwanese politics today, giving this optimistic philosophy the moral upper hand and making it very compelling.
That is why even some of those who stand to gain from government policies have not dared to openly defend them. In some cases, they have even turned around and sought moral propriety and calm by voicing support for the tide of opposition.
Meanwhile, many people who have not taken part in street protests are feeling great frustration, depression and anguish.
Idealism is often only a metaphysical substitute for empiricism which offers no access to the sublime. As soon as it loses the constraints of reality — and becomes political fervor without the empirical checks that usually serve as an antidote — it can easily transform into ideological paranoia, leading to social restlessness.
However, a society without idealism often manifests a high degree of materialism and hedonism. Such a society lacks order and moral standards, and its members feel confused. That is why it is necessary for political culture to tolerate a certain element of idealism, otherwise it will not be able to attract or mobilize large numbers of people.
The KMT’s political standpoints have long been lacking any ethical significance. It has failed to offer the nation absolute values and creative vision. It lacks the characteristics of political idealism and has no moral charisma, so it is incapable of forming the mainstream of political culture or having charm.
That is why a mere structural change regarding the distribution of power cannot rescue the KMT. What the party really needs is to seek out lofty values and ideals.
Chiou Tian-juh is a professor of social psychology at Shih Hsin University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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