One Year On: Politics - DPP wrestles with authority

Meanwhile, a bill intended to establish an anti-corruption administration (廉政署) under the Ministry of Justice has also been put aside, mainly because the KMT prefers the agency be set up under the judicially toothless Control Yuan, ostensibly to prevent "improper political interference" in anti-corruption investigations.

Independent legislator Eugene Jao (趙永清), who is supportive of the reforms, said the KMT tends to politicize these issues and oppose these bills out of partisan considerations.

"The KMT thinks that all these bills are aimed at it," Jao said.

In some other cases, the KMT has opposed DPP-proposed bills simply because it does not want the DPP to gain credit for popular measures, Jao added.

One recent example has been the stalling of proposed amendments to the Commercial Port Law (商港法), which is designed to enable a merger between Kaohsiung Harbor and Kaohsiung City -- the accomplishment of which was one of Chen's campaign promises.

In yet another example, the legislature amended the Labor Standards Law (勞動基準法) in June 2000 to shorten the maximum working time to 84 hours per fortnight from 48 hours per week.

The revision was pushed through by the KMT in what was an attempt to outshine the DPP's original plan to shorten the workweek to 44 hours -- another campaign promise of Chen's.

Liao said this case was the most obvious example of the KMT's unjustified antagonism against the DPP, because the KMT was betraying its long-standing party line that sided with business interests, rather than workers.

"The KMT, after losing power and becoming an opposition party, should stick to its own line to show its differences with the ruling party," Liao said. "A struggle not guided by a clear policy line only is only aimed at opposition for its own sake."

But the DPP has also been at fault, analysts say, both by failing to communicate with the opposition parties to win their endorsement for many of the bills or tell the public about the importance of the bills thereby creating popular pressure to make things happen.

Wu Tung-yeh (吳東野), a professor of political science from National Chengchi University, said the DPP should have offered the public a clear outline of its priority policies to get wider public support.

"What is needed most is to have all the political parties sit down to think about in what direction the nation should be steered; currently it seems to be drifting, with everyone waiting for the year-end legislative elections to come," Wu said.