The ROC legislature has declared it open season on the Cabinet. Representatives have the right to "interpellate" (grill) the premier, ministers, and chairmen of commissions of the government's executive branch, and the first week of July saw the opening of the most recent such session. Premier Tang Fei, recovering from surgery, was subjected to eighteen hours of bruising interrogation over the initial three days. At the nadir of his ordeal, he was shown photos of various members of his team and asked to identify them by name. To the accompaniment of crows of delight from the KMT benches, he achieved a less than perfect score.
Catching a pol out on any issue, important or trivial, is admittedly a fun pastime, and jibes, however cheap, still carry the power to wing and wound. But somehow this felt different. The style of interpellation adopted by the KMT seemed, in the words of one DPP legislator, self-serving, wasteful, and short on substantive policy debates. Is this an indicator of things to come?
Most commentators hope not. Benjamin Disraeli wrote that "no government can be long secure without a formidable opposition." Or, in the words of the House of Representatives Practice , 3rd ed., "The Opposition is an important component in the structure of the House and is considered to be essential for the proper working of democratic government and the parliamentary process in the Westminster system." But Taiwan does not operate a Westminster system, and even if it did, "opposition party" and "ruling party" are vague terms at best. The new president, Chen Shui-bian, belongs to the DPP, so it seems logical to assume that the DPP is now the ruling party. But although the KMT is often styled the "opposition" party, the reality is that it still calls many of the shots.
One article of the ROC Constitution has a particular bearing on this problem. At the request of more than one-third of its members, the legislature may propose a vote of no confidence in the premier. Should more than 50 percent of the total number of legislators approve the motion, the premier must tender his resignation and at the same time may request the president to dissolve the legislature. In other words, a simple majority of the legislature can frustrate the executive as long as it is prepared to run the hazard of a legislative election.
So how do the figures add up? In the 1998 elections, the KMT retained its majority with 123 seats out of a total of 225. The New Party won 11, and the DPP captured 70. Two other parties obtained one seat each. For as long as the president of the ROC was a member of the KMT, that creaked but it worked. Now, however, the ROC president is a DPP stalwart, and the Cabinet includes members garnered from across the political spectrum.
Apart from Tang Fei's embarrassing "photo call," two recent examples highlight the problems. The legislature changed the Cabinet's version of a bill to shorten the working week and did so in such a way as to pose a threat to local industry (according to local industrialists). It then revamped the executive's proposals for a senior citizens' welfare provision, making it prohibitively expensive in the process. President Chen accused "certain lawmakers" of wanting to make the Cabinet "the legislature's administrative department." Legislators countered that the Cabinet was at fault for not seeking to open proper negotiating channels.
The trouble is that Taiwan remains an emerging democracy. There is as yet no solid commitment to the proposition that political competitors do not necessarily have to like each other, but they must display tolerance and acknowledge that each has a legitimate role to play. There is as yet no recognition that civility in public debate is desirable in itself. And in particular, there is no acceptance of the convention that electoral losers accept the judgment of the voters with good grace while both sides address the problems facing the country.
Under that convention, the losers continue to participate in parliamentary debates as a "loyal opposition." In practice, that means that although there are times when an opposition must actively resist the government's efforts, there are also times when it must play a supportive role. Menachem Begin, for example, would never have achieved peace with Egypt without the support of the Labor Party, and after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Theodore Roosevelt emerged as the leader of a highly constructive opposition that survived until the Armistice.
Fortunately, some of Taiwan's politicians seem to grasp this. Lawmakers recently agreed to modify the interpellation procedure, giving ministers more time to answer questions. There were also calls from the legislative speaker, well received on both sides, for lawmakers and ministers to treat one another with greater respect.
What prompted this welcome change of attitude? The probable answer is that both major parties now have an eye to next year's legislative elections, where there are two possible scenarios. The electorate may decide that President Chen is doing a good job and deserves a more cooperative legislature. This is the KMT's worst nightmare, for if its legislators are massacred at the polls it will mean the end of the party as an effective political force, leaving the way clear for James Soong's People First Party to become the dominant opposition group.
The alternative is that the KMT may benefit from typical "midterm blues" and find itself with even more lawmakers than it has now. It would not be the first time that a Taiwanese electorate had opted for a DPP leader counterbalanced by a KMT legislative body, although it would be the first at national level. People have shown before that they like having a useful check on potentially dangerous pro-independence activists. But--and it is a big but--such a result may not materialize if over the next few months the KMT gains a reputation with the electorate for being willfully obstreperous and obstructive.
This is a dangerous moment for Taiwan, with cross-strait tensions preoccupying analysts in Taipei, Beijing, and Washington. It is no time for a handful of grandstanding politicians to be playing dog in the manger. The KMT would do well to heed Disraeli's words and mold itself into an effective, loyal opposition. At the moment, however, it looks more in tune with the 14th Earl of Derby: "The duty of an opposition is very simple: to oppose everything and propose nothing."