The lawsuit over army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) still rumbles on. Hung died on July 4, 2013 — on the eve of being discharged from military service — during a confinement punishment which sparked a 25,000-strong protest in Taipei.
The corporal’s sister, Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), has declared her intention to stand as a candidate for the recently formed New Power Party (NPP) in next year’s legislative elections. She is to stand against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) in Taichung’s third electoral district. In addition, NPP founder Freddy Lim (林昶佐) has also put himself forward as a candidate and faces KMT Legislator Chiang Nai-hsin (蔣乃辛) in Taipei’s Daan District (大安), a KMT stronghold.
Meanwhile, two prominent human rights lawyers — Hu Po-yen (胡博硯) and Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) — have thrown their hats into the ring for New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District (中和) and Hsinchu City respectively to challenge KMT legislators Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) and Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠).
The recent activity by civic groups is to be welcomed. The NPP’s decision to enter into the legislative election is a highly significant moment: The new civic force — which surfaced during 2013’s mass demonstration against the mistreatment of the late corporal Hung, and again in last year’s Sunflower movement — is beginning to dip its toe into legislative politics. The prospect of the “civilization” of Taiwan’s democratic movement rests upon the ability to reform the narrowly partisan positions of the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Accordingly, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said that the DPP will continue to have discussions with other groups and individuals, saying that: “Of course we hope that the driving force for reform comes from the DPP, but there are many social movements that can join with us to create a combined reforming force.”
The DPP is the largest political organization in opposition, but it remains to be seen whether the party has the staying power to push through reform if it regains office, or whether public opinion will be jettisoned once in government.
In fact, not only did Hung’s death and the Sunflower movement clearly demonstrate the KMT’s detachment from public opinion, it also revealed that the DPP is unable to keep pace with the present generation’s appetite for change. The DPP still assumes a leading role in social movements, yet since the party’s structure became more rigid — and following its period in government — DPP politicians have placed themselves over and above the interests of the public, while issuing a series of righteous slogans.
Following the previous presidential election, Tsai admitted that she was defeated as a result of her China policy. Tsai has since refrained from making even the most basic criticism of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-China stance — even to the extent that the DPP is seeking to win over Beijing’s “approval.” The removal of the Taiwan independence clause from the party’s charter has even been mooted. Furthermore, do not forget the party’s half-hearted engagement with the issue of cross-strait trade.
Over the previous few years, there have been negotiations behind closed doors between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the resultant cross-strait trade in services agreement, so vehemently promoted and pushed by Ma. However, the DPP’s oppostion to this agreement has been somewhat lackluster. It has been the Taiwan Solidarity Union that has been saying what the public is thinking, holding widespread meetings to explain what is going on and helping the industries concerned about the impact of the agreement a forum in which to voice their concerns.
At the same time, professors and instructors at universities and research institutes have been providing students with in-depth analysis of the drawbacks of the trade in services agreement, and how the “better future, now” — which the Ma administration has been touting — is absolutely not the right policy.
Thanks to these efforts, increasing numbers of people have become, in a short space of time, aware of how significant the trade in services agreement is. Initially, the KMT refused to be distracted by the weight of these doubts and it was at this point that students and other members of the public occupied the main legislative chamber, setting Taiwan on a precarious course.
At the same time, a sense of Taiwanese identity has been growing — a reaction to the overall pro-China stance adopted by the government. If the DPP wants support from these civic forces, it will need to get a better grip on what the public wants and must not lose its way regarding its China policy.
In terms of the positions of power its members attained, the DPP can claim to have been the winner in the nine-in-one elections in November last year. However, would this have been possible if there had been no vigil for Hung Chung-chiu along Ketagalan Boulevard, or had there been no Sunflower movement, or had a political novice like Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), now Taipei mayor, not managed to swing the election victory he did? If these things had not happened, would the DPP be sitting so pretty?
It has been said that the KMT’s defeat was the DPP’s victory. The DPP has got its free lunch, but how much longer will it be able to keep eating it? Before the Lunar New Year break, a number of DPP figures, smelling blood, started announcing their intention to stand in the next legislative elections, including some who have already retired from politics.
The NPP is specifically targeting difficult seats, whereas the DPP is looking for safe bets. However, what if the party fails to harness these civic forces? Civic groups are autonomous and the DPP has found itself trailing them in social movements and in terms of sheer political momentum, not to mention becoming preoccupied with securing positions of power for its own members. Is this the way for the party to win the electorate’s trust in forthcoming elections?
The DPP’s rise and growth, its previous stint in power and its current aspirations to return to power are little to do with its inherent strength, and all to do with the shortcomings of the KMT and the public’s desire for change. Ma rebuffed what the public wanted and the KMT only started to change when things started to go awry. And what of the DPP? From when it was part of the outlawed dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) movement to its current formulation, it has consistently relied upon its ability to absorb emerging forces within society and change its interests to keep it more on the side of public opinion than the KMT.
If the DPP persists on its present course and seeks only to use highly autonomous civic groups as a tool to help it win a legislative majority, there is a real danger that in four years’ time, with the nation’s increasingly informed society, the DPP will have missed the boat.
Conversely, if people in the KMT have vision and the will to reform the party, and can put Taiwan first, it is possible that these civic forces will switch allegiance. There is, after all, no such thing as a sure vote: The Ko phenomenon has demonstrated that.
Translated by Edward Jones and Paul Cooper
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