Sources at the Presidential Office said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is in favor of accepting the DPP chairmanship and taking personal responsibility for party reform.
The off-the-record remarks come at a time in which strong hints of the president's position have been made by his office, such that many believe that a proposal that the president should serve concurrently as party chairman will be passed by the party's National Delegation Assembly on April 20.
"It is the norm in almost all advanced democracies for the president to be the leader of the ruling party," said a close aide to the president.
"It means that the most powerful person, who has the greatest public support, should accept ultimate responsibility for leading the party."
The aide told the Taipei Times that the DPP had undertaken extensive research on party reform since Chen's victory in the presidential election in March 2000, and that a consensus reached by senior party leaders after December's legislative election was that the president should serve concurrently as DPP chairman.
The proposal has been described by party leaders as "the merger of the policy-making process of the ruling party and the government."
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Yu Ying-lung (游盈隆) says that it will mean that representatives from the party's legislative caucus, the Cabinet and local administration chiefs will be able to discuss government policy with Chen during the weekly meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee.
Chen, the aide said, after long and careful consideration of the issue, finally agreed.
"President Chen will draw a strict line between party and governmental affairs in his chairmanship of the party," the aide said, "and he will put into practice the spirit of party politics, which should avoid all the abuses of the former KMT administration, such as the blurred links between government budgets and party-owned businesses."
Chen and the Presidential Office in fact hinted at his willingness to serve as party chairman on three occasions last week. Chen said during an Internet chat, "I can't just watch the party machine wither. This is my duty and responsibility, not a privilege."
Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), secretary general to the president, said during an afternoon tea with reporters on Thursday that if the president were to accept the chairmanship, he would prevent party interference in government.
"President Chen may receive more complaints than praise, if he takes over as chairman," Chen Shih-meng said, "but in the interests of the wider situation in the DPP and the country, he must make that choice."
Unpublished DPP surveys are said to show a decline in support for both Chen Shui-bian and the DPP since the party's proposal that the president should serve as party chairman was mooted by the party's reform committee.
Some party leaders argue that this is the result of widespread public cynicism about the influence of ruling parties on the government after decades of KMT control over the Executive Yuan.
"Moreover, the DPP has condemned the KMT's inappropriate behavior of the past decades," said Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬), director general of the DPP's Culture and Information Department. "It has created the negative view among the public that the president should not serve concurrently as party chairman."
"DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has said that it is his job to explain to the public the differences between the KMT's past conduct and the current DPP measure," Cheng said.
Kao Chih-peng (高志鵬), a member of the DPP's top policy-making Central Standing Committee, said that the line between the government and the ruling party will be very clearly drawn, but admitted that convincing the public would be difficult and the Cabinet would need time to draw that line.
"We will tell the public that the DPP has no party-owned businesses, and will therefore never make the mistake of the KMT by fusing its party assets with state-owned businesses," Kao said.
"More importantly, the DPP's Central Standing Committee will neither discuss the allocation of government resources nor decide on government appointments.
"The Central Standing Committee will only discuss the main direction of government policy rather than deciding the details of government policy," Kao said.
Kao also stressed that the DPP's tradition of collective decision-making is to be preserved, but warned that executive branch input into the party decision-making mechanism must be increased.
He also said that, as chairman, the president must be prepared to wield more power than previous party chairmen.
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