Meanwhile, the DPP Just Can't Get Its House In Order...

The DPP is showing failure on several fronts, and none is more urgent than the party's deadly habit of crapping all over itself in public. The KMT might occasionally air intraparty gripes, but even when it does, factions line up against each in ways that suggest real political issues are at stake, but the DPP makes a fetish of baseless griping....Taiwan News has the call:

In an attempt to boost its morale and image, the DPP headquarters held a forum yesterday on how to best reform the political party.

It's hard to see how a reform conference can get anywhere, since all the factions can agree on is how pissed they are at the leadership, and since rarely do Chinese praise their leaders, we are likely to get only criticism and carping....

At the event, grassroots members voiced their dissatisfaction with the party's lackluster performance and also with the first family's alleged corruption.

DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) pointed out that not only was the first family alleged to be implicated in a Sogo gift-coupon scandal, but also cronyism seemed to be raising its ugly head, as those close to President Chen were often promoted to higher offices.

No matter whether the accusations disclosed by Kuomintang Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) were true or not, the first family should avoid any conflict of interest and reflect upon itself deeply, he said.

DPP Taipei City Councilor Lee Chien-chang (李建昌) bluntly said it was the first family that should be responsible for the DPP's tarnished image.

President Chen and his family should be criticized, but the four major leaders should immediately speak for the public and correct the party malady, the councilor said.

Echoing Lee Chien-chang, DPP Legislator Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) said the four major leaders have set aside their duties and are instead focused on how to gain the party's nomination for the 2008 presidential election.

What's interesting is that Chiu Yi, who led a riot over the assassination attempt on Chen Shui-bian by a pan-Blue supporter just before the 2004 election, and should be in jail at the moment, can say whatever he likes and not get in trouble -- and DPP members actually buy the accusations. One of the saddest aspects of Chinese cultural practice is that when A accuses B, A is not required to submit any evidence to support the accusation. Guilty as soon as charged is the normal reaction. So here in the DPP's own party ranks, people give credence to an accusation of corruption on the First Lady's part, although no evidence has ever been adduced to support this accusation. Also interesting is that people still take Chiu Yi seriously.....

The Taipei Times reported on the forum as well, pointing out that:

Another major talking point was the uncertainty over the party's candidate for the Taipei mayoral election, since nobody registered for the primary by last Friday's deadline. DPP Legislator You Ching (尤清), whose attempt to register for the primary was rejected, said that the party had dismissed his application on a technicality.

Yes, that's right. At the moment the DPP has no registrants for the party primary for the single most important position in Taiwan after the Presidency. Worse yet, party insiders apparently favor Frank Hsieh, the former mayor of Kaohsiung, who did well as mayor there but got hit by scandals, and then became premier, only to leave office an apparent failure. Hsieh is unlikely to outpoll a KMT candidate in heavily Blue Taipei.

Another DPP problem is of course corporate governance, a very serious issue in Taiwan throughout public and private business, a subset of the larger problem of institutional operations throughout Chinese society. The Taipei Times reported on the latest fiasco:

In their struggle to grab control of the company, neither Fan nor Huang wanted to give an inch. Ever since their appointments in October 2003, policies they implemented ran counter to each other. They were primarily selected for the positions as a part of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government's efforts to use the company's massive resources for its political agenda.

But the most worrisome issue is the obvious lack, over the last three years, of accountable records kept by Council of Agriculture, Financial Supervisory Commission and Executive Yuan officials responsible for supervising the company's management team and ensuring shareholders' rights and interests.

Some people attributed this insufficient supervision to infighting between different political factions within the government. Others said it was due to the government's shrinking ownership in Taiwan Fertilizer after the government sold another 20 percent stake last year, reducing its holdings to 24 percent, with foreign investors owning about 47 percent.

Theoretically, Taiwan Fertilizer has been a private company since 1999. The reason that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government could select both Fan and Huang to manage the company in 2003 was because the government still enjoyed a majority 44 percent stake at the time. In this respect, there's no difference between the DPP and its predecessor Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT): They both like to put their own people in posts at state-controlled companies in order to serve their own political will.

Yup. For the DPP's only model was the spectacularly corrupt KMT, and that's how things were done in the old days. DPP elites seem unable to imagine any other kind of world. Until Taiwan has good governance, it will not have a strong democracy.

[Taiwan] [Democracy] [DPP] [KMT]