People have been saying that the vicious power struggle between the pan-blue and pan-green camps has made people care about political stance only, instead of what is right and wrong. They say this disregard for morality is the source of social chaos and should be blamed on political ideology.
However, the appearance of opposing political ideologies in Taiwan is unavoidable. Domestic pro-unification activists keep pushing for Taiwan and China to merge.
Although there is only a small number of them, they are an interest group that controls the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and forms the mightily powerful pan-blue camp. Although most pro-blue voters do not support unification, they are part of the interest group and therefore follow the pro-unification activists.
Another group is opposed to annexation by China and actively fights the pro-unification camp. These are the pro-independence activists, and they have allied themselves with anti-KMT politicians to form the pan-green camp.
There is no equals sign between the unification-independence issue and the blue-green divide, because most pan-green camp supporters also support independence, while only a few of the pan-blue camp support unification.
However, the pro-unification individuals dominate the pan-blue camp. The opposition between the unification and independence camps has led to confrontation, and their ideologies are unlikely to coexist, just as land and aquatic animals cannot live in a shared environment. There is clearly no chance for reconciliation between either the unification and independence camps or the political camps, but if the nation’s political map could be drawn properly, it might relieve the conflict.
The current political conflicts are not a result of the government system, rather they are a result of the formation of the nation’s two-party system. If there were more parties, such disputes would be naturally reduced, since there would be a need to create inter-party coalitions.
The system with two major parties is a result of the legislative electoral system. Before the seventh and latest amendment to the Constitution in June 2005, there were four parties with more than 10 seats each in the legislature — something that could be called a multi-party system.
It was the amendment that created the two-party system by changing the legislative electoral system. In addition, the amendment raised the threshold for constitutional amendments, making it nigh on impossible to carry out any future changes.
Since it is currently not feasible to change the legislative electoral system through another constitutional amendment, the only way to increase the number of seats for small parties in the legislature is to lower the threshold for receiving party subsidies, so that small parties will be able to hold legislative seats, which would help reduce confrontation between the two major parties.
More importantly, Taiwan needs parties that promote environmental protection and ecological conservation. Similar parties in other places around the world that also promote public welfare are smaller parties protected by their governments.
Taiwan should not be an exception — it should lower the threshold for party subsidies to parties that receive at least 1 percent of the total vote, so that, for example, the Green Party will one day have its own legislators.
Unfortunately, the KMT and Democratic Progressive Party, which dominate the political scene, have always suppressed small parties, resulting in confrontations that have become part of the political reality.
Chen Mao-hsiung is a retired National Sun Yat-sen University professor and a member of the Northern Taiwan Society.
Translated by Eddy Chang
A gap appears to be emerging between Washington’s foreign policy elites and the broader American public on how the United States should respond to China’s rise. From my vantage working at a think tank in Washington, DC, and through regular travel around the United States, I increasingly experience two distinct discussions. This divergence — between America’s elite hawkishness and public caution — may become one of the least appreciated and most consequential external factors influencing Taiwan’s security environment in the years ahead. Within the American policy community, the dominant view of China has grown unmistakably tough. Many members of Congress, as
After declaring Iran’s military “gone,” US President Donald Trump appealed to the UK, France, Japan and South Korea — as well as China, Iran’s strategic partner — to send minesweepers and naval forces to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When allies balked, the request turned into a warning: NATO would face “a very bad” future if it refused. The prevailing wisdom is that Trump faces a credibility problem: having spent years insulting allies, he finds they would not rally when he needs them. That is true, but superficial, as though a structural collapse could be caused by wounded feelings. Something
Former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founding chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday, making headlines across major media. However, another case linked to the TPP — the indictment of Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) for alleged violations of the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) on Tuesday — has also stirred up heated discussions. Born in Shanghai, Xu became a resident of Taiwan through marriage in 1993. Currently the director of the Taiwan New Immigrant Development Association, she was elected to serve as legislator-at-large for the TPP in 2023, but was later charged with involvement
Out of 64 participating universities in this year’s Stars Program — through which schools directly recommend their top students to universities for admission — only 19 filled their admissions quotas. There were 922 vacancies, down more than 200 from last year; top universities had 37 unfilled places, 40 fewer than last year. The original purpose of the Stars Program was to expand admissions to a wider range of students. However, certain departments at elite universities that failed to meet their admissions quotas are not improving. Vacancies at top universities are linked to students’ program preferences on their applications, but inappropriate admission
RSS