Thu, Jan 24, 2002 page8

• KMT set on self-destructive path

  • By Lee Chang-kuei 李長貴
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  How to strengthen economic competitiveness and political stability are the issues of most concern to the people of Taiwan. The investment environment in China is attracting international capital, technology and manpower from places including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. As a result, Taiwan's financial and economic structure, as well as productivity, have weakened. Against a backdrop of a complicated political relationship with China, in addition to political unrest at home, Taiwan's competitiveness has seriously declined.

  After the end of former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) rule and in the one and a half years since the first transition of power in Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has indeed led Taiwan's democracy to a healthier direction of development.

  The crackdown on "black gold" politics and the judicial reform effort have both been quite effective. The political, financial and economic structure of the country has marched forward. With the exception of the agricultural sector, Taiwan is all set to enter the WTO framework. As a result of last month's legislative and county-commissioner elections, the DPP is set to become the biggest party in the legislature. Even the number of votes the DPP won in the local races exceeded the KMT's votes by more than 1 million. Political stability is once again emerging in Taiwan.

  Taiwan's political instability arises from the parties' discrepant views regarding national identification and status. The pan-green camp identifies with the "Taiwan First" ideology, while the pan-blue advocates the "one China" principle. The biggest hidden danger in Taiwan politics is the fact that political parties are built on ethnic and ideological bases, rather than policies on the economy and public welfare.

  The struggle between "Taiwan first" and "one China" is in a permanent deadlock. Of the people in Taiwan, 80 percent are Taiwanese and 20 percent are the mainlanders who came to Taiwan from China after 1949. Of all the members of the Legislative Yuan, 100 belong to the pan-green camp, while 115 belong to the pan-blue camp. Since the pan-green camp still does not have an absolute legislative majority and the pan-blue camp continues to insist that Taiwan's constitutional system of government is a "cohabitation" system, Chen's goal of amending the Constitution to install a presidential system remains difficult.

  The pan-blue supporters are comprised predominantly of those who support the "one China" principle. The group represents less than 20 percent of the population, yet it is represented by an absolute legislative majority.

  The pan-blue camp is boycotting the "cross-party alliance for national stabilization" and the Taiwan Advocates (群策會) think tank proposed by Chen and Lee, respectively. The boycott has not only created a lame-duck presidency, but also obstructed Chen's efforts to steer Taiwan toward political sovereignty and independence from China.

  The political stability and economic development of Taiwan depends on whether the "cross-party alliance for national stabilization" and the Taiwan Advocates can round up the support of more than 115 legislators for the pan-green camp and beef up a financial and economic development-oriented Cabinet through a reshuffle.

  The KMT ruled Taiwan for more than five decades. In the first four decades, it engaged in the political, educational and economic sinicization of Taiwan. To accomplish this, the KMT first bought off local factions, politicians and leaders of the private sector, as well as leaders of academic circles and financial institutions, so that they would join the KMT. The KMT offered them business and financial incentives or other interests in order to recruit the elite of Taiwan into the party, so as to secure the foundation of its alien regime in Taiwan and change Taiwan's native culture.

  The KMT then banned the use of the Hokkien language in schools and all other organizations in daily life. Everyone had to speak Mandarin. The teaching materials used by schools indoctrinated students with a "great China consciousness." All of Taiwan's civil servants, judges and military officers were recruited into the party's fold.

  During his second term as president, Lee began to compare himself with Moses, who led the Jewish people out of Egypt, hinting that he would lead Taiwanese into a new world. In 1996, Lee spearheaded the constitutional amendment for direct popular election of the president, triggering military threats from China.

  As then KMT chairman and president of Taiwan, Lee did everything within his power to "localize" the Chinese KMT, resulting in direct attacks by political heavyweights and high-ranking military officials who were ethnic mainlanders. At the end of his presidency, Lee was forced out of the KMT chairmanship by an ethnic mainlander mob. His former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) took over the KMT chairman throne and Lee was later expelled from the party.

  After his defeat in the presidential election, Lien should have resigned from all of his posts in the KMT to demonstrate his sense of responsibility for the party's defeat. However, he was surrounded by high-ranking party officials who persuaded him to engage in the "de-Taiwanization" of the party. Lien gained the support the party's ethnic mainlanders as a result and became their puppet leader.

  The KMT began to change gradually, turning into China's propaganda machine. One after another, KMT lawmakers and scholars "went home" to China for visits. The KMT began to sway from the mainstream popular will of Taiwan, returning to its true self -- an alien regime.

  Although reduced to an opposition party, the KMT continued to proclaim that it was "a party for all the people," yet at the same time placing the party's reins back into the hands of the mainlanders. A marriage between the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) also began to take shape.

  The alien regime the KMT maintained during its reign by means of manipulation, coercion and bribery also built a very unique political culture in Taiwan. For example, despite a problematic moral and political character demonstrated by the Chung Hsing Bills Finance Corp (中興票券) scandal, after his presidential defeat, James Soong (宋楚瑜) still managed to recruit 13 KMT and New Party lawmakers to join the PFP, the party he founded and for which he serves as chairman.

  Under Lien's leadership, the KMT will continue to wither in the future. As a result of the "one China" principle's limited appeal to ethnic groups other than the mainlanders, the KMT relied on "black gold" politics and authoritarianism to survive and develop. Pressure on the party to return the party's assets to the people and the limited appeal of the "one China" principle will most certainly turn the KMT into the smallest party.

  If the KMT and the PFP can integrate, however, and Soong manages to become the new group's chairman, the hybrid group should be able to become the nation's second-largest party.

  Conclusions reached in the KMT's post-election-defeat restructuring and self-evaluation all missed the point. The party continues to have an "alien regime" image and still uses an elite leadership model under which the party's secretary-general, think tanks and various umbrella organizations are used to execute the authority and will of the party chairman. How can this out-dated leadership style and disregard for grassroots constituent services bring the KMT the chance to regain power?

  Although China was a little edgy with the KMT's newly proclaimed emphasis on the path of "one China, anti-communism to safeguard Taiwan and Taiwan first" (一個中國、反共保台、台灣優先), the KMT, in reality, continues to oppose localization. It also hasn't stopped resenting the DPP and has refused to cooperate with it.

  In reviewing the government budgets for the fiscal year 2002, the KMT has unreasonably deleted budgets for ministries and agencies headed by Taiwanese, but not those headed by mainlanders. It has further proposed deleting all of the budgets for Lee, inviting resentment from localized lawmakers and voters.

  The KMT has been reduced to an opposition party, yet it remains incapable of understanding that the people of Taiwan hopes it will play its opposition rule properly. Against a backdrop of fierce democratic competition, the KMT is like a car going downhill on a narrow, winding path with no breaks. It's future is predictable.

  Lee Chang-kuei is the president of the Taipei Times and a professor emeritus at National Taiwan University. This article is the second in a four-part series about Taiwan's four main political parties. Part three will appear tomorrow.

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