Taiwan Democracy's Last Piece of Puzzle

Taiwan Democracy's Last Piece of Puzzle

HoonTing

 

        Taiwanese people have fought for human rights and civil rights under Kuomintang's (KMT, the Nationalist Party exiled from China in 1949) long rule of martial law since the end of WWII.  KMT put many dissents into prison; and some others even paid their lives without legal trials.  KMT's brutal reign discriminated between the ruler and the ruled.  That discrimination formed a significant feature in Taiwan politics.  However, the dissents have successfully forced KMT government to lift the martial law and to promise free elections gradually in 1990s, when Chiang Ching-kuo died and Lee Teng-hui (LTH) took Chiang's office. 

 

        As an experiment, KMT's Chair LTH held three elections for Taiwan Provincial Governor, Mayor for Taipei City as well as Kaohsiung City in 1994.  KMT won two yet lost one in Taipei.  To KMT, the outcome was acceptable.  Taipei Mayor Huang Ta-chou, a native Taiwanese, lost.  He handed over the power to the winner Chen Sui-bien (CSB) who represented the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a party mainly composed of native Taiwanese. 

 

        The election test, of course, led to the Presidential election in 1996.  For the first time, the people on Taiwan had the right to vote for their president directly.  KMT's Chair LTH, a native Taiwanese, won. 

 

        These bright results convinced KMT's elders and the political siblings (權貴) that they could still preserve the power through the elections.  It paved the way for the optimistic KMT toward the second Presidential election of 2000. 

 

        Under the threats from Beijing, including amphibious landing maneuvers and guided missiles tests offshore Keelung and Kaohsiung in 1996 as well as 2000, LTH neither called off nor put off any election as the late president Chiang Ching-kuo did in 1979, the year the US recognized PRC as the legitimate government of China.  The democracy survived.

 

        However, KMT lost the election of 2000.  Both KMT and DPP had to adapt the new circumstances.  KMT's elders and the political siblings blasted LTH's "betrayal."  A weeks-long protest been held in no time.  One leader Ma Ying-jeou, Taipei City Mayor and a political sibling, even rushed to LTH's Presidential Residence at mid-night and without any appointment to question Lee.  Still, LTH transferred the power to CSB.  People remarked this as "the Silent Revolution," but they were too naive to aware of the vulnerability of democracy.

 

        People did not sense the behavior of the Vice President Lien Chan on May 20, 2000.  Lien was one of candidate of the Presidential election and a political sibling.  He did not show up for CSB's inauguration ceremony; and it was his ceremony to leave the office as well.  Lien chose to travel abroad instead, and claim it was a trip planed months before.  No one has ever discussed the question: Was it a flaw inauguration under the Constitution? 

 

        Besides the legal doubt, Lien's absence implied an even more significant questions referring to "the Silent Revolution": How did the political siblings see the elections?  What a native non-KMT Taiwanese President meant to them? 

 

        In historical view, democratization is not only dealing with the issues such as "of the people" and "by the people"; it has to solve the maladjustment of high rank bureaucrats and the vested interest (既得利益者), especially the political siblings.  It is a very sensitive yet practical issue.  The political siblings have not only monopolized the ruling expertise; but have been in charge of the government for decades.  Now they lost the powers and the privileges along the process of democratization.  Their long monopoly became assets, which could help the political siblings earning the foreign supports much easier than DPP's unfamiliar officials do.  DPP's weak governance would not proceed if DPP did not win their cooperation; and that was what exactly happened during 2000 to 2008.  On the other hand, the resentful Vice President Lien did try once to extend the olive branch.  Yet the young DPP President CSB did not take it.

 

        On the other hand, the political siblings have learned much from the elections of 1994 and 1996.  They also knew how to guide or to remold public opinions through mass media.  The results were they acquired important positions as Taipei Mayor (1998 Ma and 2006 Hau), Taichung Mayor (2001 Hu), the Administrators of Taipei County (2005 Chou) and Taoyuan County (2007 Chu then 2009 Wu) etc. through elections.  

 

Unlike Taiwanese elites, they have won, have lost, and have handed over the power to other parties and ethnics for times; the political siblings' politicos have not yet transferred the power outside the circle once they acquired a position.  

 

It was the native Taiwanese LTH, who transferred the power to another native Taiwanese CSB in 2000; and it was native Taiwanese CSB, who passed the power to Ma Ying-jeou, a political sibling in 2008.  The political siblings, until now, either renewed the term or passed the power to another "friend" through election.  They have not yet proved themselves to lose the power and privilege to non-KMT party and to different ethnic group in calm.  KMT supported two large weeks’ street protests right after the Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 that strengthened our concern.  Do they really believe in democracy?  Did the pre-trial detention of former president CSB for almost two years and a series prosecution against CSB's ministers divulge their true heart after they are in charge?  Now they pledged not to lose the power again... 

 

KMT won two landslide victories in 2008, including 75% seats of the Legislative Yuan, and the Presidential office in 2008.  Now they hold the power and the resources as they were before 1990s.  Will they accept the possible lose in future's election peacefully, especially the election 2012?  Will they transfer the power to the winners no matter whom and what he/she is?  Is there going to have any "accident" to obstruct the power transfer of 2012?  No precedent could give us a clue.

 

        Taiwan democracy's last piece of puzzle will not be in place until 2012; and the result of 2009 election might be a debut.  Only time will tell.