President Chen Shui-bian (
Winning 14 out of 23 city and county constituencies in the local elections held on Saturday, the KMT holds absolute dominance in both the legislature and among local governments. The outcome confirmed that Ma has become a leader wielding enough power to be evenly matched with Chen, in a sense.
In contrast to the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered a rout, securing only six cities and counties in southern Taiwan, gravely wounding the DPP's legitimacy and Chen's reputation.
In light of this political reality, Chen must contact Ma and show sincerity to genuinely cooperate and reconcile with the pan-blue camp.
"There is no doubt that Ma has gained comprehensive control in the legislature and of local politics. But as many important bills, including the arms-sales bill, remain blocked in the legislature, Chen should extend goodwill to Ma ... and invite him and other party chairmen to a summit to discuss the nation's future as soon as possible," political analyst Hsu Yung-ming (
Hsu said that the financial reform Chen has repeatedly promoted is a priority issue he could negotiate with Ma.
"Inviting the leaders of the opposition parties to attend the second economic development conference would be a good start, and something that Chen could initiate," he said.
But judging from Chen's past record, Emile Sheng (
"President Chen's meeting with People First Party [PFP] Chairman James Soong [
Chen and Soong reached a 10-point agreement in the meeting, but many of the issues have not yet been realized.
"President Chen's flip-flops and inconsistency regarding national policies were also major factors that have angered people and caused the DPP to fail [in Saturday's election]," Sheng said. "Ma, who now has full control of the pan-blue camp, has time to discern the president's mind and will not necessarily be in a hurry to respond to the summit issue."
Meanwhile, much post-election commentary -- including the DPP's internal analyses -- indicates that the central government's poor performance and skepticism about the DPP's integrity contributed to the election fiasco.
If the DPP wants to make a comeback in the 2007 legislative elections and the presidential election in 2008, three important issues for party leaders are rebuilding supporters' confidence in the party's integrity and ability to reform, establishing a new political discourse and uniting divided factions.
"The election outcome proved that the party faces a crisis of trust among the people regarding its ability and integrity, and that the call to reform is no longer just the DPP's `patent [territory],'" said Ku Chung-hwa (
In addition to rooting out corruption, Ku said that the DPP has to strengthen government operations and improve the quality of its policy-making.
The party needs to achieve concrete results in the next two years or it will ruin its chances of winning the 2008 presidential election, he added.
"The DPP should also solve the contention between different factions and integrate them soon, as a party that has several [competing] powers will never be united enough to stay in power over a long period of time," Ku said.
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