The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) former New Tide faction and the so-called Eleven Bandits for the most part lost in the party's legislative primaries. Among the losers were many current and long-time legislators who are good politicians with a fine record. This caused much reflection and comment from the pan-green and pan-blue media before and after the elections. When the primaries were drawing to a close, some members pointed at the pan-green media's bias as the reason for the outcome.
But an important political faction was virtually annihilated in the legislative primaries, and I'm afraid that cannot have been completely masterminded by the media.
Looking at the larger political environment and the operations of the former New Tide faction, it's not very surprising it was utterly defeated in the primaries. After the primaries, some of those not elected complained that the media weren't fair, while others said it was because the election system was flawed.
Yet others believed the reason for the defeat was that the candidates didn't react actively to criticism. To this date we have not seen any member of the former New Tide faction engage in objective self-criticism.
After all the competing forces in the DPP had united and agreed to disband the factions, the New Tide faction, whose character was especially strong, almost couldn't comply. In a time when everybody was getting together in a joint attack on New Tide power, when even the Eleven Bandits were encircled and suppressed, the New Tide members had insufficient power for a counterattack.
As a result, their frequent and blunt criticism of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The New Tide has several members with a very intellectual political style, who like to discuss things bluntly and even criticize people at the top of the party. Because of this style, the members themselves and a part of the public viewed the New Tide as pro-reform.
So the question is, are they really pro-reform? What are their concrete reform policies? When we look a bit closer, it seems that there is only criticism, and no concrete ideas for reform to be seen.
For example, when Lo Wen-chia (
Among the individual people in the New Tide faction and the Eleven Bandits, there are many with an heroic character. Take Shen Fu-hsiung (
His narcissism meant he was absorbed in his own sharp wisdom, which captured the interest of the media. But in the end he became a political loner, losing two consecutive legislative elections. If Shen doesn't change, he will surely have to leave politics.
The New Tide's big boss, Lin Cho-shui (林濁水), is a bit more open-minded, and he is a more thoughtful and more systematic politician. But exactly because of that, he has developed too much self-confidence, even solipsism, with a mentality of "only I am right." This type of behavior turns people off and attracts a lot of criticism.
There were also many faction members with a blunt and arrogant character, but lacking political wisdom.
As to the whole former New Tide faction, according to the DPP resolution, the factions actually don't exist anymore. Hence, how an assembled political elite in the long term are to actively contribute to the next stage of democratic reform should be very important, not only for the continuation of the values of the New Tide, but also an important influence on the DPP and in extension the development of democracy for the whole country.
Since the factions cannot exist anymore, we must overcome the restrictions of the faction system to become a bigger and broader political power.
We must regroup our internal power, and build an overall momentum for democratic reform.
Chiu Hei-yuan is director of the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout
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