Mon, May 29, 2000 page3

• New officials feeling their way in the dark

  INITIATION KMT officials last week took to their opposition role with surprising fervor, grilling appointees and dimming prospects for easy sailing

  • By Monique Chu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Symptoms of maladjustment were visible at the Legislative Yuan last week as legislators from different parties and newly minted officials tried to establish themselves in their new positions.

  KMT legislators, on the other hand, discovered the joys of becoming an opposition party after their party's stinging defeat in the presidential election in March, which ended the party's five-decade rule.

  "I've really enjoyed myself to the fullest during the past two days," KMT legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said last Wednesday, talking about how she and her colleagues grilled new ministers at the Legislative Yuan.

  The first painful exchanges at various legislative committees for the ministers helped lift the KMT's morale and drove home the fact that it remains the majority party in the Legislative Yuan.

  "The KMT has become an opposition party, but it remains the majority party in the legislature. While the power of the KMT headquarters shrinks, many KMT lawmakers realized that the legislature has become the only stage for it to display its strength," said Yu Hsiao-yun (余小云), a political scientist at Chinese Culture University.

  "To retain a measure of power, KMT legislators held back nothing in raking the new ministers over the coals," Yu added.

  But while KMT lawmakers, such as Hung indulged in lashing out against new Cabinet members, not all in the KMT found the "metamorphosis" into opposition figures a comfortable one. "I felt I was maybe a bit too ferocious," admitted Chin Tseng Jean-lie (靳曾珍麗), another KMT legislator, recalling how she laid into officials at the National Defense Committee last week.

  Si Cheng-hong (施正鋒), a researcher in political science at Tamkang University, said Chin and others in the KMT, who previously acted on directives issued from above when the party controlled the executive and legislative branches, found themselves propelled into the role of opposition figures as part of a riven party whose prospects for thorough reform remain dim.

  "KMT lawmakers were no longer pieces in some board games (棋子) manipulated by the KMT headquarters, and they got to learn how to act like opposition party members," Si said.

  While the KMT lawmakers "stood up" to rail at members of the new government, critics urged the "wet-behind-the-ears" ministers to speed up their learning process, both about their ministries' affairs as well as the do's and don'ts of political appointees.

  Yu also offered her advice for scholars-turned-officials. "Before entering into the political arena, scholars worked under shelter in ivory towers. But it's key to realize that there is a great disparity between political science and politics. A master of theory is not necessarily a great practitioner," she said.

  To impress the public, newly appointed officials should clearly state their policy objectives as soon as possible based on their judgement and understanding of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) aims, as sketched out in his campaign white papers.

  Meanwhile, observers lamented the current situation in the legislature, where, they said, respect for political appointees was lacking.

  "It's awful for legislators to question political appointees when they don't even treat them as human beings," said Si.

  Other critics went further to predict an even "gloomier" scenario in the legislature with the prospect of opposition parties forging an alliance to oppose new policies and budgetary bills put forward by the new Cabinet.

  And even when new officials learn how to smooth their interactions with legislators, the net result is not atogether positive, said Yu.

  "Once these new officials learn how to bend their knees toward legislators in order to get their support in the legislature, what we will see is `public relations politics,' a far cry from `rule by the clean and upright' as promised by President Chen," she added.
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