The DPP government should remember its role as a reformer and not follow in the footsteps of the former KMT administration, independent lawmaker Shih Ming-teh (
"I'm afraid that if the DPP administration insists on doing things its own way as it does now, its role as a reformer may be reversed, with it being the one who has to face the reality of being reformed," Shih said.
"Opposition voices are the driving forces of every social improvement. Those in power can easily get carried away when they prefer compliments to criticism."
Shih, a former DPP chairman who quit the party in November, made his remarks yesterday during a conversation with one of China's best-known exiled dissidents, Wei Jingsheng (
Shih, who has been by dubbed by media as Taiwan's Mandela, was jailed for 25 years on sedition charges during the nation's autocratic days before martial law was lifted in 1987.
Wei was forced into exile in the US in 1997 after spending 17 years in Chinese jails for advocating multi-party democracy in China.
Citing two recent examples that have led to public criticism, Shih warned the DPP not to forget what it was fighting for when it was still an opposition party.
"Take the fury caused by the Japanese cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi (小林善紀) and the confusion driven by the 228 national day holiday," Shih said. "It shows how easy the administration has forgotten what it's after," he said.
While the DPP was an opposition party, it succeeded in lobbying for the creation of the 228 national holiday. The Executive Yuan's October proposal to turn Feb. 28 into a ordinary work day has led to much criticism, though it remained a holiday for civil servants this year.
Some have argued that the national holiday has to be turned into a regular work day in order to help make up for work days lost under the new five-day workweek policy.
Commenting on the controversial performance of the DPP administration, Wei said that it was sad to see how the DPP has changed some of its stances after gaining power.
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