Sun, May 06, 2001 page8

• Editorial: New movement a waste of energy

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  On Friday, the 82nd anniversary of the "May 4 Movement" (五四運動), several KMT lawmakers launched their own "New May 4 Movement," demanding that Premier Chang Chung-hsiung (張俊雄) step down if Taiwan's economic growth drops below 5 percent and unemployment surges beyond 4 percent. KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) even threatened a vote of no-confidence in Chang should the economy sink beneath these benchmarks.

  The incident serves only to display the lawmakers' ignorance of history. The original "May 4 Movement" in Beijing protested the aggression of major foreign powers and voiced demands for "democracy and science."

  If Taiwan is to truly launch a "New May 4 Movement," it should rightly be against Taiwan's biggest external threat -- China. After all, China is the country that has done everything imaginable to drive Taiwan out of the international arena. Wasn't it just a fortnight ago that China tried to bully Japan into refusing Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) visa request, as well as balking at President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) planned stopover in the US? Hasn't China deployed a large number of ballistic missiles along its southeast coast against Taiwan? Oddly, we don't see the lawmakers leading this "New May 4 Movement" against China.

  A no-confidence vote right now would contradict the demands for "democracy" of the original "May 4 Movement" and run counter to popular will. Even at the height of discontent with the DPP administration during the row over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四), the public overwhelmingly opposed a no-confidence vote. As they did then, people now fear the effects of the the resulting political instability.

  Perhaps realizing the public rage that a no-confidence vote would invite, KMT Secretary-general Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) indicated that his party has no immediate intention of calling for the vote. Given that they want to maintain their stranglehold on the legislature following the year-end elections, KMT leaders must have sweated profusely over Pan's outburst.

  What's more, the word is out that some KMT lawmakers -- feeling disillusioned with the party's increasingly pro-China stance -- are secretly plotting to defect and join forces with lawmakers who care more about their own country than kowtowing to their belligerent neighbor. Speculation has it that they are waiting until after the election to defect -- and possibly form a new party -- as they need the KMT's financial backing to retain their current seats. In light of this, risking moving the election forward with a vote of no confidence could prove suicidal.

  Obviously the KMT has been trying win back the hearts of these potential "defectors" before the election takes place. If the election is moved up, then the KMT would lose the time needed to do so.

  Moreover, if a no-confidence vote is cast against the premier over a sagging world economy, many other nations would likewise have to change their governments, for they are not expected to fare any better in the near-term. For example, the predicted unemployment rates of the US and France this year are more than 4.5 percent and 8 percent respectively. A recent IMF report predicts that Taiwan's economic growth for the year will be 4.1 percent, a figure far better than those of many other countries. In fact, the average growth rate worldwide is expected to be only 3.1 percent.

  We are not suggesting the government should completely evade responsibility for the island's economic woes, but we hope that the opposition parties do not aggravate the situation by stirring up political and economic instability by constantly waging empty threats against the government.
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