"A week is a long time in politics," former British prime minister Harold Wilson once said.
Last week must have been one long nightmare for outgoing Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Su was seen by many as the favorite in the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential primary, but after being defeated by former premier Frank Hsieh (
Su then shocked everyone on Saturday by announcing he was resigning as premier.
Su must have been disappointed at his defeat in the primary vote, but his decision to resign immediately thereafter meant that the DPP reneged on its original intention to let the general public have a say in choosing its presidential candidate and let factional affairs be its guide.
The internal campaign against and purge of former New Tide faction members during the party's legislative primaries may have affected Su's campaign, as he was closely allied with the faction.
But drumming out those legislators connected to the New Tide who advocate a more moderate stance toward China could backfire on the DPP in December's legislative elections because the majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the "status quo" in cross-strait relations.
Su's decision looks even more bizarre in light of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Taipei mayoral primary last year. KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (
Su may have dropped out in response to heated party debate about how best to exclude the opinions of pan-blue camp voters. His withdrawal suggests that certain candidates believed that relying solely on a vote by party members was the best way to exclude any pan-blue influence.
But with the nation's highly polarized electorate, the opinions of centrist and even "light blue" voters could have helped the DPP select a candidate with the broadest possible appeal rather than one who is most able to navigate the party's factional disputes.
Su may have resigned as premier to make way for a new Hsieh-friendly candidate, but this will not help to ease the nation's political gridlock.
There are already signs that the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) will try to take advantage of the void left by Su's resignation to create more legislative pandemonium. The PFP has even talked of holding a no-confidence vote before the new premier and his Cabinet members are even named.
Talk by the opposition of the premier's position being weakened by the constant shuffling of personnel is just bluster -- former president Lee Teng-hui (
The main concern for the DPP will be that the new premier will have insufficient time to get established before the upcoming legislative and presidential elections, thus giving the opposition more time to spread its propaganda about a national crisis and to harm the DPP's image.
The DPP needs to put a stop to its endless internal bickering and battling and get everyone -- including former New Tide members -- to work together. It must refocus its efforts on defeating its real opposition -- the pan-blue camp -- in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections. If it fails to do so, the reforms it has managed to slowly push through since it came to power will come to nothing.
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