Sat, Aug 26, 2000 page8

• Tang's problems are Chen's fault

  • By Julian Kuo 郭正亮
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  DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) has surprised the public by lashing out at Premier Tang Fei's (唐飛) performance. Although President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was not elected by an absolute majority and his party, the DPP, is not the majority party in the Legislative Yuan, the DPP is viewed as Taiwan's only ruling party because of Chen's forceful leadership of government policy and personnel matters. When the ruling party's spokesman severely attacks the president's most valuable ally in public, therefore, it only serves to confuse matters.

  To repair the damage, Chen immediately expressed his "100 percent support" for Tang. Wu, under huge pressure from inside and outside the party, also apologized to Tang for his inappropriate speech.

  The question is, although a major uproar has been played down as a minor one, the problem remains. In fact, Wu's speech honestly bespoke many DPP members' worries that the party itself -- not to mention its prospects in next year's legislative election -- might be hampered by a premier who belongs to the biggest opposition party, the KMT. That's probably why Wu chose to condemn Tang's performance; bidding to release the pressure on the DPP by putting all the responsibility on the premier as early as possible.

  If this is so, it is wishful thinking on Wu's part. The public will not necessarily view Tang's poor performance as merely down to Tang himself. They might, furthermore, blame it on the president's distrust of and failure to empower the premier.

  Once the public turns to Tang out of sympathy, Wu's words may be interpreted as a bid by the DPP to cruelly force Tang to step down after he has helped the ruling party successfully form the new government.

  On the whole, Tang's poor performance is due more to the president's failure to empower him than to flaws in his leadership skills. First, Tang was not given sufficient authority over personnel, so he could not choose his ideal Cabinet members freely. Second, Tang has not been adequately empowered to make major policy, so it is extremely difficult for him to put policy into practice. Third, the DPP is not the majority in the Legislative Yuan, so Tang has to face stiff challenges from the opposition parties at all times.

  Tang's lack of power is not his fault. It is the consequence of Chen's suspicion and distrust. The more Chen gets involved in governmental personnel matters, the harder it is for Tang to win his staff members' faithful support. The more Chen controls government policies, the harder it is for Tang to carry out his own ideals. The more Chen stresses rising above party politics, the harder it is for Tang to gain support from opposition parties such as the KMT.

  Unfortunately, Chen still doesn't understand the philosophy of "delegation of power" (放權). In fact, Chen is not only taking precautions against Tang but also against his other political rivals such as KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) who beat him in the previous mayoral election. Chen's suspicious personality was also reflected in his choice of Cabinet members such as the Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), and Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who don't belong to any DPP factions, and Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅), an independent.

  In the formation of a new government, it might be necessary to be cautious when dealing with personnel matters, especially in the case of military officials, in order to maintain a stable political environment. Now that the government has been formed, however, Chen should try to earn his power by pursuing the implementation of national policies with all his efforts, rather than trying to protect his power passively by suppressing others. If he really wants to put his ideal political revolution into practice, he should stop suppressing other political stars right away.

  Chen's suspicious and distrustful style of leadership clearly reflect the fact that he lacks self-confidence. In order for Taiwan and its new government to stand up, Chen needs to recognize the importance of delegating power. After all, only a man who can appoint somebody stronger than himself deserves the title "great leader."

  Julian Kuo is an associate professor of political science at the Soochow University.

  Translated by Eddy Chang.
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