The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) crushing loss of seats in the legislative elections has not only pushed the party back to the "Formosa era," but also wounded the nation's other pro-localization forces.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) predicted the results beforehand, having said that the DPP's move to join forces with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 2005 in order to amend the Constitution would lead to major losses for the pan-greens in future elections under the single-district, two vote system and thus jeopardize the continuation of the pro-localization regime. Lee, of course, is no prophet, but he knew well enough what the outcome would be.
The DPP has always identified itself with Taiwan and enjoyed the associated political benefits -- it built up the concept that "to support the DPP is to love Taiwan," thus trying to monopolize the claim to patriotism.
This strategy has allowed the DPP the right to speak out on behalf of family members of the victims of the 228 Incident, the White Terror era and other pro-localization forces who were forced to give up their autonomy and principles.
Recently, as President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) credibility has been undermined, many pro-localization forces have been caught in an awkward predicament to the point where they have no choice but to reluctantly endorse Chen.
One conspicuous example was before the legislative elections, when pro-localization organizations such as the Taiwan Society (台灣社) harshly criticized the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and called on the public to vote for DPP legislators-at-large.
Not only has the DPP's manipulation of the idea that "to support the DPP is to love Taiwan" kidnapped the entire pro-localization force, the party's negative image has also had a huge impact on its allies. Lee saw through the DPP's strategy, whereby party interests were placed above the interests of Taiwan, and he was unwilling to stand on the side of Chen and even tried to seek support from a third force when the "red-shirt army" anti-corruption protest occurred.
In addition, a year before the legislative elections, Lee took charge of the transformation and re-positioning of the TSU. Unfortunately, as the pro-localization forces were completely under the control of the DPP and had lost the ability to criticize themselves, they indiscriminately labeled the TSU and Lee "anti-localization," "fundamentally changed" and "grumpy old men." This was a manifestation of their intolerance of other parties and also their narrow-mindedness.
Therefore, considering political interests to be its top priority, the DPP has not only damaged itself but also the entire pro-localization movement. Judging from the current situation, even if DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) were to win the presidential election in March, it would take time for the vigor of the pro-localization forces to be restored.
In particular, with the DPP's lip service on transitional justice and empty electoral promises, it would be extremely unlikely for legislation such as Spain's "Law of Historical Memory" to pass in Taiwan. In other words, the DPP would continue to lose credibility on many issues because of the fact that it exploits the transitional justice issue for political gain. Objectively speaking, the DPP did not suffer a major blow in the elections because of the excellence of the KMT, but because the DPP defeated itself. In the past, the DPP considered its identification with Taiwan to be the source of potential votes, but the KMT's landslide victory has overthrown such a notion.
Given the KMT's absolute legislative majority, hopefully the efficiency of the new legislature will be improved. But this does not mean that the KMT should get its own way. Since the DPP has lost its ability to balance the power, the ensuing challenge for the KMT will be facing the test of mainstream public opinion. As far as the DPP is concerned, however, it must integrate into social movements once more, re-examine the core values that it used to safeguard and thus regain its political influence. Although it is unbearable for politicians to completely lose hard-earned power, it also represents the precious and anti-corruptive nature of democracy. This should be a turning point for Taiwan.
Huang Ter-yuan is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Ted Yang
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