Former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who engineered six rounds of constitutional reform during his 12 years in power, yesterday called for a continuation of the reform effort.
"Taiwan should think about how to establish a Constitution that better fits the status quo of Taiwan, a set of electoral systems that better materializes democracy in Taiwan, as well as a legislative and governmental structure that better suit the geographical and population proportions of Taiwan," Lee proposed.
Lee said the boundary of the country's territory, defined in the Constitution as covering all of China, its electoral systems and the number of its legislators are what "hamper Taiwan's political development and create chaos in its representative politics."
In addition, the existing organizational structure of government, which has based its blueprint on the geographical features of China, is the main obstruction barring Taiwan from building a streamlined and efficient government, Lee said.
Lee made the remarks as part of his quest to build a "normal country." It was delivered at a symposium on national policies held by the Taiwan Advocates (
Lee argued that Taiwan has not been able to become a "normal country" mainly because it has not been able to face up to its own history and develop a Taiwan-centered way of thinking.
"The objectives and system of government of the country were derived from outside, but not thought out by the people on this land according to their own needs," Lee said.
He said the former KMT regime that fled to Taiwan after its defeat in the Chinese civil war did not make it a top goal to develop Taiwan, as it was always preparing to restore its lost territory.
Also, the central government system of Taiwan was derived from a constitutional framework and governmental structure set up in China by the KMT government, he said.
Diplomatically, Lee said, the country still considered itself one of the five powers in the UN and did not adjust its diplomatic policy according to Taiwan's practical capacity.
In term of national defense, the country continued a continental military deployment that emphasized landing operations, with a goal to counterattack China, Lee said.
"I've cited these phenomena not to point my fingers at the historical mistakes of the KMT government or the KMT [as a party], but to remind everyone to reflect on the history that we've been through." .
Lee said it was with a Taiwan-centered perspective in mind that he carried out a number of reforms during his 12-year presidency.
These included raising the concept of the "ROC on Taiwan" to limit the country's jurisdiction to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu; promoting pragmatic diplomacy; and downsizing the Taiwan Provincial Government to raise government efficiency.
Lee, however, expressed an anticipation that his successor, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), will lead the Taiwanese people to carry out reforms of a larger scale.
"The reforms mentioned above, after all, were not comprehensive. To a certain extent, they were conducted with compromises with the old way of thinking and were subject to a lot of restrictions," Lee said.
Now that the nation has built up a government that truly belongs to them by voting for the DPP in 2000, Lee said it is time to establish a government system suitable to Taiwan and set an overall strategy for its development.
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