The first anniversary of Presi-dent Chen Shui-bian's
Fundamentalists also believed that Chen would bring Taiwan closer to independence. Others preferred the DPP because it had been adamant about environmental protection. The DPP's nuclear-free party platform was well known.
Still, there were those who favored Chen for his good performance as Taipei mayor. Chen was elected despite the fact that most knew he was unlikely to improve cross-strait relations.
Moreover the DPP had long faced "anti-business" allegations, so few expected a DPP government to break new ground in business policies. But voters nevertheless took the political and economic risks, hoping that by getting rid of the KMT, Taiwan would become a better place to live.
A year later, the economy has become stagnant and the unemployment rate has surged. The stock market collapsed last fall as the TAIEX dropped from around 10,000 points to about 4,500 points. It has since recovered somewhat but is still hovering between 5,500 and 6,000 points. The unemployment rate climbed from less than 3 percent to over 3.7 percent.
Chen did actually demonstrate some goodwill toward China, but Beijing simply ignored him and has only talked to former KMT officials or non-DPP legislators. So far, despite the "small three links," there has not been any significant change in cross-strait relations. Even though no breakthrough has been made, Chen has at least avoided direct confrontation with China.
To most Taiwanese, the Chen administration's performance has been disappointing, but the greatest disappointment is that the DPP has yet to prove itself as a capable ruling party. We have witnessed a government filled with diametrically opposed voices, policy reversals and finger-pointing. There has been no clear sense of direction in policymaking. Moreover, the task of attacking the salient issues of corruption and malpractice has borne little fruit.
Last summer, Chen indicated that the naval procurement scandal involving the Lafayette frigates and the death of a high ranking officer related to the scandal would be solved in one month. But we are still waiting.
More recently, in the DPP primaries, reports about vote-buying have clouded the important nomination process that the DPP claimed would stay clear from local factional politics and corruption.
The Jin-Wen Institute of Technology
The French saying "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" best depicts Taiwan's political situation. We elected a government that we hoped would bring change and disappointingly found out that everything but the rhetoric has remained the same. What is the purpose of having an alternation of power if it cannot bring substantial transformation to our political system. The DPP has about eight months to earn back the trust of the voters before the year-end local and legislative elections. Judging from its record in the last 10 months, I am not very optimistic about its prospects.
Chen-shen J. Yen is research fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.
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