The long-contemplated cross-party alliance for national stabilization is emerging from the political wilderness once again. This scheme, first mooted before last December's legislative elections, has been on the back burner for six months. Now it appears to be the next item on President Chen Shui-bian's (
According to Secretary-General to the President Chen Shih-meng (
Building a majority alliance is normal in democratic countries. It is an opportunity for bringing long-term stability to the country as long as it follows the normal tracks of partisan politics. How-ever, if the alliance is aimed at attracting independents and defectors, it probably will not help stabilize the situation.
But if President Chen follows the spirit of partisan politics, using the party-to-party method and sharing policymaking and personnel, as he promised before the election, then the opposition parties will find it hard to reject his offer. The political situation will also gradually stabilize as the alliance takes shape.
If, however, the alliance still follows the idea of enticing people, the "pan-green" camp will not be able to control much more than 113 seats -- as we can see from the results of the legisla-ture's votes on nominations for Examination Yuan positions. Such a fragile majority alliance would be by no means stable. It will still be at the sway of individual lawmakers who drift between the "pan-blue" and "pan-green" camps. The previous "government for all the people" and "minority government" are examples of failed experiments. I'm afraid the prospects of the future alliance do not look good either.
If we look from a broader perspective, building a majority alliance is not the most important issue for the country at this point. No major policy dispute is in sight for the next two years. The DPP can use the existing negotiation mechanisms at the legislature. If the opposition parties stage unreasonable boycotts against economic bills or bills crucial to the people's livelihood, then they will inevitably be punished by the electorate.
A majority alliance will perhaps be focusing more on being a campaign alliance rather than a ruling coalition. I therefore call on the president to give up election considerations and seek re-election two years from now primarily on the basis of his performance. To improve performance, one must accept well-intentioned criticism with an open heart. He should cooperate with the opposition parties instead of adopting a confrontational strategy. Of course, the public also expects opposition party leaders to respond with similar goodwill.
US scholar David Gergen's book Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton was recently translated into Chinese. The author is a Harvard University professor as well as a former news editor and commentator who served under four US presidents -- Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. In his book Gergen says that a successful president needs a strong sense of integrity, a compelling central purpose, the capacity to persuade, the ability to work within the system, a sure and quick start, a group of strong and prudent advisors and the ability to inspire others to carry out their missions.
President Chen should take note.
When political power changed hands two years ago, everyone in Taiwan had high expectations about Chen. Today, I still hope he can lead the people out of its political and economic quagmire. Perhaps Taiwan's democratic experience has been too short. Politicians care far more about maintaining power than their performance in government.
US historians regularly re-evaluate past presidents. In the results of such an evaluation in 1996, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt topped the ranking and were categorized as "great" presidents. They were followed by Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson. Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy were judged as being about average. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Reagan, George Bush and Clinton were below average, while Nixon was listed as a "failure."
We hope Chen will also be able to put himself on the scales of history and think about how he would like to be evaluated by historians in the future. No one would doubt his aspirations of leading Taiwan to a higher level, but I would like to remind him to carefully evaluate the methods for achieving this end.
As a guardian of the Constitution, Chen has to be able to operate within the existing constitutional system and go back to the basics of political accountability. The foundation for national stability lies not in a legislative alliance with barely more than half the seats. Rather, it is in policies supported by majority public opinion.
Emile Sheng is an associate professor of political science at Soochow University.
Translated by Francis Huang and Ethan Harkness
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