Recently, two KMT legislative candidates in Taipei City, Chen Horng-chi (
Let's leave the pair's true motives aside for the time being, ignoring both the likely impact on the election climate and speculation about the war that it will cause within the KMT.
Let's simply consider the appropriate norms for party cooperation and the procedures that should be adhered to. In these terms, this call for post-electoral cooperation to save Taiwan is not without an element of political scheming.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
In well functioning democratic politics, it is quite difficult for political parties to avoid cooperation. The experience of advanced Western democracies proves that there is room for cooperation between parties with widely divergent ideologies -- even though inter-party debate is often intense.
The Rainbow Coalition government in Finland, led by the Social Democratic Party, included the Left Alliance, formerly the Communist Party, and the Green Party. This combination not only had the effect of stabilizing the political situation, but also serves as a prime example of alliance and cooperation between parties that have traditionally regarded each other as enemies.
In Taiwan, the gap between the ideologies of the pan-KMT and pan-DPP camps is wide. The foundation for mutual trust is quite weak and, at each election, the relationship between the two sides gets torn to shreds. Since no government has made any effort to reverse the polarized state of political relations, I fear that a miracle will be needed if the two sides are to discuss post-electoral cooperation.
In other words, since the government doesn't consider the true meaning of party cooperation from a moral point of view, concentrating only on underhanded schemes for undermining other parties in order to consolidate its own power, it will be difficult to create long-term political stability.
Further, even if the government does manage to forge a working legislative majority, it will still have an unstable Cabinet. Politicians changing their minds due to selfish interest, may at any mo-ment create political turmoil.
Party cooperation in Western countries mainly follows one of two models. The first model involves long term alliances and cooperation, with the ultimate goal of creating coalition governments. The second model is to find temporary compromise on a case-by-case basis. These two models both have the effect of stabilizing the political situation, but both are based on inter-party talks.
Generally speaking, even if the only purpose of inter-party cooperation in Western countries is to pass a specific piece of legislation or to implement a specific policy, they will first hold inter-party talks where compromises are forged. Additionally, these compromises are sometimes codified with the signing of formal agreements, the purpose being to guarantee the parties' good intentions and promises to cooperate.
Apart from the distribution of government posts, inter-party cooperation normally includes support from the prime minister or government leader, promises not to topple the government during the term, and the establishment of basic principles for policy implementation.
KMT-DPP cooperation is not the sole possible form of inter-party cooperation, but, from the point of view of the strength of political parties and the direction of Taiwan's political development, the KMT and the DPP certainly are two forces that would be capable of stabilizing the political situation.
The problem is, however, that if the government doesn't base its considerations on how to stabilize the political situation with principled policy making, then blue-green party cooperation will probably remain a pipe dream.
A meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (
It could be said that political cooperation is about forming majority governments and stabilizing the political situation, but it must follow appropriate rules and processes and it must attempt to pull together the ideas and policy outlines of the cooperating partners. Given the domestic and international concerns that face Taiwan, the government should consider how to end the rift between parties and build a mechanism for negotiations to promote inter-party cooperation.
Targeting possible defectors from other parties will make it difficult to avoid the intensification of the common, bitter enmity between the groups nor will it be helpful in stabilizing the political situation.
The opposition and ruling parties have more than once voiced concerns that, due to partisan wrangling, Taiwan night not be able to recover from the current recession. The government should use this common ground as a starting point to do what it has long promised -- dispel the chaos and restore order.
Wu Tung-yeh is a research fellow at the Institute for International Relations, National Chengchi University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS