Beware the Arrogance of Power

Beware the Arrogance of Power
China Times editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
March 16, 2009

To the Democratic Progressive Party, Miaoli County is a political desert. Yet lo and behold, during the Miaoli County Legislative By-election, the KMT lost! An KMT official who ran an independent campaign and who was expelled for defying KMT orders, defeated the KMT candidate by 1600 votes. The Democratic Progressive Party wants to claim part of the credit. But Chu-nan Township Mayor Kang Shi-ju, who was clearly in tune with the public mood, emphasized that he was a member of the largest party -- the public. He did not rejoin the KMT after the election. Nor did he join the DPP. The two major parties on Taiwan have long controlled the island's politics. One party lost, the other party failed to win. The result reflected the mood of the majority on Taiwan.

The KMT made light of its defeat. It attributed the defeat to a low turnout, to insufficient effort on the KMT's part. It said the entire party was now in a state of heightened awareness, and in two weeks would mobilize its members for the Taipei City Da-an District By-election. But where are the signs of heightened KMT awareness? Where are the signs of KMT self-introspection? Painful lessons learned during eight years in the political wilderness seem to have been completely forgotten eight weeks after returning to power. The Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, and the Party hierarchy all betray the KMT's "I'm the Boss" mindset. the KMT's contempt for public opinion has rapidly reawakened memories of the old KMT. The KMT richly deserved to lose the Miaoli County By-election. The question is how many times will the KMT have to lose before it finally awakens from its arrogant stupor?

Miaoli County has long been a region in which factional interests trumped party interests. As long as the KMT could pacify factional interests, the Democratic Progressive Party could never gain a foothold. This time, Kuomintang legislator Lee Yi-ting was convicted of vote-buying. His opponent had Lee's election victory declared null and void. The KMT cavalierly nominated Lee Yi-ting's wife Chen Luan-ying, "to do battle on her husband's behalf." The KMT flagrantly ignored its commitment to clean government. It ignored the impact of the invalidated election. For the KMT, any elections that factions can control may as well be handed over to the factions. When Taitung County Commissioner Wu Chun-li was relieved of office after being convicted of corruption, the KMT merely nominated Wu's wife Kwong Li-chen. The KMT may have won the County Commissioner Election, but it failed to win peoples' hearts and minds. Even today, in the eyes of constituents, Taitung County's political record comes in last place. Clearly Kwong's example failed to inspire self-introspection within the KMT.

The KMT is a huge dinosaur. Any reform or change is difficult, so difficult that it often unravels in short order. Eight years the KMT lost power. Ma Ying-jeou rode back to power on the crest of a new mandate. In contrast with the DPP, Ma Ying-jeou represented a new generation, a new political style, a new political rhetoric. Ma Ying-jeou succeeded in reversing public antipathy toward the KMT. Unfortunately, since Ma Ying-jeou was elected president last year, all we find at the central government level is Lee Teng-hui, Lien Chan, and Vincent Hsiew era political appointees from nine, ten years ago. The allegiance and sincerity of veteran statesmen is commendable. But it represents a significant gap between what Ma Ying-jeou is supposed to represent. An even more serious problem is that the KMT, which holds a supermajority in the Legislative Yuan, remains utterly oblivious to the changed political climate. The KMT supermajority in the legislature has not made the passage of budgets and bills promoted by the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan more efficient. It has merely revealed the KMT's cluelessness regarding the importance of such bills in saving the economy.

What does concern the KMT? Nine years ago, KMT power was on the wane. Calls for "generational change" rang out everywhere. These calls brought Ma Ying-jeou to the political fore. The Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, and Party hierarchy are filled with old authoritarian era faces, with so-called "political elites" cultivated during the Chiang Ching-kuo era. They are at least 60 years old. Some are over 70. Although old, they remain ambitious. Their power continues to grow. They refuse to pass the baton. The result is that even middle-aged leaders have been held back until they too are old. These old people from the Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui era occupy positions of power. All they think about is becoming Premier, SEF Chairman, or Party Chairman. Less than a year after returning to power, the KMT faces a crisis akin to the one the DPP faced during the latter stages of the Chen administration.

This includes even Ma Ying-jeou. One year later, his charisma has been seriously eroded. He helped the KMT return to power, but immediately reverted to the Teflon Ma Ying-jeou who disowns all responsibility for the KMT's shortcomings. The Legislative Yuan is unable to upgrade its efficiency. Defective candidate nomination procedures for Legislative By-elections or County Magistrate and City Mayor Elections have nothing to do with him. In less than a year the KMT has regressed to the KMT of ten years ago. Yet Ma Ying-jeou remains utterly clueless. Why does the public feel he is incompetent? The answer is simple. Because the KMT reforms he led or stood for have either been stalled or compromised.

Whether we are talking about Miaoli County or Taipei City's Da-an District, one or two seats more or less in the Legislative Yuan will not affect the KMT's supermajority. But peoples' hearts and minds are undergoing gradual change. Precisely because the Legislative By-election and year end County Magistrates and City Mayors Elections will not affect the central government, voters have decided to teach the KMT a lesson. When the KMT Central Committee vows that it will "annihilate Su Tseng-chang" in the year end Taipei County Magistrates election, it ought to remember the lesson of the Miaoli Legislative By-election. Those who become arrogant with power, usually annihilate themselves, rather than their opponents.

中時電子報
中國時報 　2009.03.16
社論－別輕忽權力傲慢帶來的警訊
本報訊

苗栗立委補選，在這個堪稱民進黨沙漠的選區，國民黨竟然輸了！以一千六百票打敗國民黨的，是自行參選而遭國民黨開除黨籍的候選人，儘管民進黨號稱策略支持，但這位竹南鎮長康世儒顯然頗知民心向背地強調自己是「全民最大黨」，選後既不重回國民黨，也不加入民進黨。左、右台灣政局的兩大黨，一個輸了、一個沒贏，卻反應台灣多數選民的心聲。

苗栗立委補選敗選後，國民黨舉黨低調只說投票率低、努力不夠，全黨開始更警覺地，為兩星期後將舉行的台北市大安區立委補選動員，卻看不到國民黨反省在哪裡？警惕在哪裡？政權易手八年來的生聚教訓，在重新執政八個星期不到，就完全拋諸腦後，府院黨流露的老大心態、對民意的輕慢，都加速喚醒民眾對老國民黨的記憶。苗栗立委補選，國民黨輸得一點都不冤枉，只是，不知道接下來，國民黨還要輸幾次，才能從重掌政權的狂喜和傲慢中醒過來？

苗栗一向是派系空間超越政黨壁壘的選區，只要擺平派系利益，民進黨從來嘗不到甜頭，這一回，國民黨原當選人李乙廷涉及賄選，並遭對手提起當選無效之訴，國民黨輕輕鬆鬆提名李乙廷妻子陳鑾英「代夫出征」，顯然輕忽過去「清廉政治」的承諾，也無視「當選無效之訴」的效應，對國民黨而言，凡是派系能左右選局者，就由派系主控，前台東縣長吳俊立因貪瀆遭訴判刑解職，國民黨就直截了當提名吳的太太鄺麗貞參選，國民黨即使贏得縣長選舉，卻沒贏得名聲，到現在台東縣還是選民心目中政績吊車尾的選區。鄺的例子，顯然也沒給國民黨太多啟示。

國民黨老大到簡直像個龐大的恐龍，任何改革與轉變都那麼困難，困難到即使轉過了身，三兩下又轉回去了。馬英九能在國民黨失去政權八年之後，重新站上權力的浪頭，因為相對民進黨，馬英九代表新的世代、新的政治風格、新的政治語言，馬英九成功地扭轉民眾對國民黨的惡感。很遺憾，自從馬英九當選總統一年以來，在中央政府多是以九、十年前李連蕭班底為主的政務官，固然老臣謀國，其忠其誠可感，但與馬英九應該代表的「新世代」就出現落差；更嚴重的是，在立法院掌握絕對多數的國民黨，完全看不出新氣象，與府院重大政策相關的預算案和法案，不但未因國民黨擁有多數席次而更有效率，甚至恍若未覺拚經濟預算案與法案的急迫性。

國民黨到底關心什麼呢？九年前，國民黨政權甫旁落，「世代交替」喊得鎮天價響，除了終於拱出了一個馬英九，府院黨高層無不是走過威權時代的老面孔，這些蔣經國時代開始培養的所謂「政治菁英」，年紀都在六十歲、甚至七十歲以上，老驥伏櫪，勁頭愈來愈大，中生代都被拖老了，棒子還交不下來，這些從蔣經國時代走到李登輝時代的老人們，坐在權力的位子，想的還是行政院長、海基會董事長、黨主席，一年不到，國民黨的氣象就有步上民進黨執政後期的隱憂。

包括馬英九總統本人，一年時間即已讓他的高人氣嚴重耗損，他帶著國民黨轉型攀上權力高峰之後，立刻回復那個不沾黨權的馬英九，從立法院運轉效能無法提升、到立委補選或縣市長選舉提名失當，都和他無關，國民黨一年不到即折舊到十年前的國民黨，馬英九卻還恍若未覺地不明白：為何民意會認為他無能？答案很簡單，因為他帶領或代表的國民黨改革半途而廢或中途妥協了。

不論是苗栗或台北大安區，一席或二席立委，都無法改變國民黨在立法院擁有絕對多數席次的現實，但是，民心就在點點滴滴中累積而轉變，正因為立委補選、甚或年底縣市長選舉，都不影響中央政權的再輪替，選民刻意以此「教訓」國民黨的可能性更高，當國民黨中央指三道四要在年底台北縣長選舉中「一次殲滅蘇貞昌」的時候，必須謹記苗栗立委補選的教訓：權力的傲慢，通常殲滅的會是自己，而非對手。