President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) announced on Tuesday he would ask Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and party officials to withdraw from factional activities in order to maintain administrative neutrality, but many overlooked the fact that Chen himself also serves as the DPP chairman, which is a violation of administrative neutrality, political analysts said yesterday.
Chen made the announcement yesterday that party operations and government administration should be free from factional politics, in response to the entrenched problem of factional infighting, particularly in internal party elections. The initiative was also aimed at addressing problems with DPP primaries, where vote-buying and "ghost party members" have threatened to taint the polls.
The "ghost" party members refer to people who strike deals with candidates in exchange for membership fees. These members usually don't exercise their membership, and pay the fees until election time when candidates would offer to use their membership to influence the election.
However, some questioned the veracity of Chen's avowed intention to maintain administrative neutrality while he retains his post as party chairman.
Chiu Hei-yuan (
Chiu said President Chen's role as party chairman gathers too much power in one man, which undermined the party's ability to balance his power.
"If Chen wants the administration and the party to stay out of factional politics, why does he have to be party chairman? For the purpose of administrative neutrality, how can Chen be the president in his capacity as party leader?" Chiu asked.
"There is only one kind of party in the world that would allow the president to serve concurrently as a political party leader; that is a Leninist party. The DPP has adopted the flaws of the Chinese Nationalist Party," Chiu said.
Chiu said Chen has misjudged the direction of party reforms by expelling the factional forces in the party, as it is very difficult to monitor whether factional activities still exist.
"There is no way factions will disappear, but what is more important is whether or not Chen has proposed concrete measures to stamp out vote-buying practices and the ghost party membership problem in the DPP primaries," Chiu said.
Apart from criticizing Chen's proposal to diminish factionalism as the wrong approach to eliminate election fraud, Chiu said Chen's plan to exempt lawmakers from factional engagements made the initiative meaningless.
"Legislators are the most active members of party factions. Their purpose is to win seats in the legislature. If they are not barred from factional activities, but instead ask their subordinates -- such as party officials -- to disconnect themselves from the factions, the purpose of this reform measure is meaningless," said Chiu.
Chen announced on Tuesday that government officials, excluding legislators and party officials, excluding members of Central Executive Committee, Central Standing Committee and Central Review Committee, are barred from attending factional activities.
However, some analysts backed Chen's move to diminish factionalism as a positive gesture to transform the DPP into a modern, democratic political party.
Ku Chung-hwa (
Ku said normally political parties wouldn't be dominated by factions, which control the distribution of benefits.
"Modern political parties should emphasize the democratic process, but factions only undermine the democratic system. It's a positive approach that Chen seeks, to de-factionalize the DPP so that each party member is independent and could have a fair say in the party's affairs," Ku said.
National Policy Advisor Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), also editor-in-chief of the Contemporary Monthly magazine, yesterday said that, as the New Tide Faction (新潮流) is currently the only faction that remains strong within the party, and Chen has absolute power over the party, the plan to reduce factional politics would not be difficult to achieve.
DPP legislators avoided recognizing that Chen's call for the withdrawal of factional forces in administration was an attempt to dissolve party factions.
Julian Kuo (郭正亮), general director of the New Tide Faction -- according to some analysts the most combative faction in the party -- yesterday said Chen's announcement was pending a resolution to change the party's regulations.
"We still need to observe the fallout from this plan," Kuo said.
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