While the opposition alliance criticizes Taiwan's former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) as "essentially a dictator with the appearance of a democrat," scholars view Lee's repeated changes of political partners as a reflection of his grand strategy to "gradually separate Taiwan's sovereignty from China's."
Lee, who left office just 13 months ago, recently returned to the political frontline to take personal command of the development of Taiwan's political landscape.
He recently took steps to form a new political party to help the ruling DPP form a stable majority in the Legislative Yuan after the year-end legislative election. His return has been marked by rebukes from opposition politicians, including his former No. 2, Lien Chan (連戰), chairman of the KMT, that blame the nation's current problems on "a few people who retain the attitude of sore losers."
During his 12 years as president, from 1988 when he succeeded the late Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) until 2000, when he passed the office to Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Lee Teng-hui had two political partners. The first was James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the second Lien Chan.
But the Lee-Soong and Lee-Lien partnerships both ended in hostility. And, one year after Taiwan's transfer of political power, Lee has chosen President Chen as his third political ally, at a time of political chaos, and is once again making political plans.
In the eyes of Lee's opponents, the Lee-Soong relationship, once like that of father and son, soon ended like that between water and fire. History seemed to repeat itself with the close relationship between Lee and his handpicked successor, Lien Chan.
Now the former KMT chairman is siding with his DPP successor as president. "In Lee Teng-hui's world, there is no such thing as his abandonment of anyone, but only other people's betrayal and ungratefulness," Wang Tso-yung (王作榮), a former president of the Control Yuan once said.
Even Peng Ming-min, a senior advisor to the president and also a close friend of Lee, (彭明敏) said that: "No matter how formidable Lee is in a political struggle, he obviously is not good at choosing a successor (識人之明)."
Indeed, many political commentators argue that while the net result of Lee's 12-year presidency remains to be determined by history, the way in which he handles his political allies reflects the "strongman politics" of the authoritarian era which created him.
However Lee Yung-chih (李永熾), a historian at National Taiwan University, argues that to analyze Lee's approach to choosing his political allies, one should not see it from the angle of "political love-hate relationships" (政治恩怨). Rather, one should analyze it from the higher perspective of national strategy with Taiwan's sovereign independence as Lee's ultimate goal.
According to Lee Yung-chih, Lee Teng-hui first declared an end to the Chinese civil war, which was fought between the KMT and the Communists, by lifting the so-called "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion" soon after taking office. He then rationalized the reality of separate governance on either side of the Taiwan Strait by putting forward the idea of "one China, two political entities" (一個中國兩個政治實體).
In the third phase, he proclaimed, "The Republic of China on Taiwan is a sovereign state" and put the two sides on an equal footing. Finally, during his last year in office, Lee redefined the terms of cross strait politics yet again as a "special state to state relationship".
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