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Party Politics after the 2008 Legislative Election 95
29 rose from 23 to 38 percent, surpassing that of the
Kuomintang, which stayed at a mere 21 percent. The
approval ratings for Tsai Ying-wen, chairwoman of the
opposition party went up slightly, from 34 to 37 percent,
while her disapproval ratings dropped significantly
from 37 to 27 percent.
On October 26 Cheng Wen-tsan, spokesman for
the Democratic Progressive Party, announced a switch
to mass rallies as the way to sustain the political momentum
of the opposition. He said: “To become an opposition
party with power and leadership, we have to
replace legislative action with mass movements. Our
political appeals will become even clearer when we
place more emphasis on mass movements.” 2
The Democratic Progressive Party staged a series
of mass rallies in November when Chen Yunlin, chairman
of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan
Straits (ARATS), visited Taipei to sign four agreements
to further improve relations between Taiwan and China.
At one of the rallies, Tsai Ying-wen promised supporters
her party will “fight against” the Kuomintang both
in the streets and on the floor of the Legislative Yuan.
The fights on the two fronts complement each other,
she said. But she gave priority to the fight in the legislature.
Legislator William Lai, a Democratic Progressive
Party legislative caucus deputy whip, stresses the importance
of mass movements, however. He said in an
interview with the Liberty Times: “The only thing we
can do in the Legislative Yuan is to highlight the unfairness
we suffer and our policy appeals. Since the
Kuomintang can beat us (in parliament) … more than
5.8 million voters (supporters of the opposition) will
definitely take to the streets if they are not satisfied
with governmental policies. To choose the parliamentary
route or mass movements isn’t a question for the
2 http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1007/8/0/9/100
780908.html?coluid=5&kindid=23&docid=
100780908&mdate=1027145745
Democratic Progressive Party, for there isn’t any room
for our party to maneuver in parliament.” The political
strategy the opposition after the legislative election is to
create controversy in parliament and get supporters to
take to the streets in confrontation with the ruling Kuomintang.
Ma Ying-jeou’s Role in Government
President Ma Ying-jeou, according to the Constitution,
is the head of state. He is not the head of government.
His role differs from the president of the
United States who is the head of state as well as the
chief executive or head of government. But the great
majority of voters who elected Ma hope he would a
super president, one like President Barak Obama of the
United States, to lead Taiwan out of its current economic
downturn. Even the opposition party blames the
Ma government rather than Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s
Cabinet for poor administration.
The Kuomintang controls a virtual three-fourths
majority in parliament. Its former chairman is the president
of the country. It has a majority government,
headed by Premier Liu, who was appointed by President
Ma. There is no wonder why Ma is perceived as a
super president. But he isn’t, because he does not have
support from all Kuomintang legislators.
Kuomintang lawmakers might dislike some of
President Ma’s political appointees, including Cabinet
ministers. It is also possible that Cabinet ministers do
not have good channels of communication with leading
legislators of the ruling party. Subtle tensions have existed
between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative
Yuan since President Ma assumed office on May 20.
For one thing, even Kuomintang legislators assailed the
government for choosing the wrong time to announce
fuel price hikes and failing to place an entero virus epidemic
under control without delay. They acted more
like opposition party lawmakers in confirming President
Ma’s nomination of candidates for the Control
Yuan and the Examination Yuan. In the end, Ma had to
withdraw four nominees for the nation’s highest