One Year On: Politics - Embattled vice president faces up to tough test

As a democracy activist during the dark years of martial law, Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) has fought some tough battles. Yet few have been harder than her first year as the first female vice president in Taiwan's history.

The energetic, expressive and sometimes fiery vice president has been a source of controversy at the Presidential Office. This is largely, say political critics and government officials, because she does not fully understand the role of a vice president as dictated by the Constitution, and also in part because of her headstrong nature. Lu's determination to achieve something for her country comes into conflict with the relative powerlessness of her position.

A firm independence advocate, Lu has excoriated Beijing's hard-line stance on Taiwan. Domestically, she lashed out at the government's rescue work over the Pachang Creek (八掌溪) tragedy last July, saying it had been too slow and President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) apology had come too late to assuage public anger.

In the past year, Lu has also reportedly transgressed her authority by calling high-ranking officials from the Cabinet to her office to discuss national affairs. Staying in the background is something that Lu is, perhaps, just temperamentally incapable of doing.

"In the past, some vice presidents also served as premier -- because they were men, everyone took it for granted. Now for the first time a woman has become vice president and everyone tries to downgrade the role," Lu, a staunch feminist and women's rights activist, has said.

Governmental officials, however, bridle at suggestions that gender is a consideration regarding their problems with what they see as a wayward vice president.

"She always plays the sexism card whenever she doesn't get her own way, but that just blurs the real focus of the matter," said an official at the Presidential Office, who requested anonymity.

He pointed out that Lu's discontent was the result of her inadequate understanding of her constitutional role.

"Vice presidents have no real power according to the Constitution. What [Lu] ought to accept is the reality that the presidency can't be shared, nor is a vice president a co-president. There can't be two suns in the sky, and there can't be two emperors in an empire," the official said.

"The job of a vice president is to assist the president, not to outshine the president. This is not only a practice in Taiwan, but also a common rule of the game in all democratic countries."

Offering similar views, Hwang Jau-yuan (黃昭元), an associate law professor at National Taiwan University, noted that the Constitution has only one ordinance to state the power of vice presidents, which says, "in the event the office of the President should become vacant, the vice president shall succeed until the expiration of the original presidential term."

"Accordingly, under the Constitution, vice presidents are the first candidates to succeed the president if this becomes necessary, but they are by no means leading figures in governmental operations," Hwang said.

Lu's lack of political tact has shown itself by her lodging open protests against the government in an effort to gain more power. Political commentators see this as a result of Lu's tough, uncompromising personality.

"Simply because there is no distinct regulation to categorize the authority of vice presidents in the Constitution, it is essential for Lu to remain in harmony with President Chen, because it is totally up to him to determine how much power he is willing to bestow upon his deputy," said Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly.