PDF(2.7mb) - 國家政策研究基金會

16 Taiwan Development Perspectives 2009
support, President Chen tried his hands again on referendums.
Professing his reelection in 2004 was due
largely to a larger voter turnout in response to his call
of two referendums, President Chen had his ruling party
propose two more to be held alongside the legislative
elections of January 12 and the presidential race on
March 22.
The one held first was on whether the Kuomintang
should be liquidated. Voters were asked to decide
whether special legislation was necessary to force the
Kuomintang to return all assets it was alleged to have
acquired illegally. The Kuomintang had come into possession
of much property that belonged to the Japanese
during their 50 years of colonial rule of Taiwan. Some
of it was transferred by the Kuomintang government to
the party’s ownership at greatly reduced prices. The
Democratic Progressive Party wanted the Kuomintang
to relinquish whatever asset it had so acquired. Fearful
of the liquidation, the Kuomintang countered by proposing
a referendum on whether to pass legislation to
create a special counsel to investigate the president, the
first family and top government officials suspected of
corruption.
Later, the Kuomintang called for a boycott of the
two referendums, neither of which was adopted. But it
was the misgovernment that got the rich richer and the
poor poorer in Taiwan that led to a rout of the ruling
party in the January 12 elections. The amendment to the
Constitution in 2003 that halved the Legislative Yuan
membership to 113 from 225 and introduced a new
election system sealed the fate of the Democratic Progressive
Party. Ironically, it was the ruling party that,
with Lee Teng-hui’s support, had made that amendment
pass the Legislative Yuan, the rationale being it would
be easier for it to edge out, or at least closer to, the
Kuomintang in a two-party system if the new legislative
election formula were applied. The elections, as
was predicted, ushered in a two-party system with all
small parties washed out, but gave the Kuomintang a
virtual three-fourths majority in the seventh Legislative
Yuan, which opened after the Chinese New Year festival
in 2008. The Democratic Progressive Party managed
to keep only 27 seats in the legislature, one shy of
a one fourth of the membership.
Referendums
The other referendum President Chen wanted to
call was a very controversial one. He required the voters
to support Taiwan’s admission to the United Nations
under the name Taiwan. Though almost everyone in
Taiwan knew it would never pass, Washington and Beijing
were seriously concerned. The United States believed
the referendum, if adopted, would change the
status quo and held Chen responsible for trying to renege
on his word not to call such a referendum. Warning
after severe warning came from Washington and
even Condoleezza Rice, U.S. secretary of state, had to
come out to register official American opposition to
President Chen’s UN bid. Practically all major world
powers opposed the referendum as a move that might
endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing, however, did not make any direct threat to
Taiwan, which might help Frank Hsieh, the standard
bearer of the ruling party, outpoll his Kuomintang rival
Ma Ying-jeou. It was good enough for China to ask
Rice to voice her opposition in Beijing to the Chen referendum.
The Kuomintang, on the other hand, jumped on
the UN bid bandwagon in the wrong conviction that
Chen’s election gimmick would defeat Ma Ying-jeou
who was entangled in what must be dubbed the “Accountgate.”
The opposition party proposed a return to
the United Nations as an agenda of its referendum. It
wanted Taiwan to return as the Republic of China to the
world body from which it was ousted in 1971. The
proposal did not compromise the one China principle
with a different interpretation, and as such, was not as
controversial as the Chen plan, causing little concern
abroad.
However, just as it did in January, the Kuomintang
had a second thought about its return to the UN referendum.
In the end, it decided to call on voters to stay