Taiwan Today

Democracy had its finest hour yet in the Republic of China November 14.

On a cool overcast day with occasional dribbles of rain, 7,263,820 people—71.9 percent of the electorate—went to the polls throughout the island to choose 77 members of the Provincial Assembly, 51 members of the Taipei City Council, 42 members of the Kaohsiung City Council, 3 city mayors and 16 county magistrates. The rest of the grassroots exercise will be held January 16 with the selection of local councils and leaders.

The fact of such elections (those at the national level were held a year ago) was remarkable in itself. Taiwan never knew an election of any kind during the 50-year (1895 to 1945) occupation of the Japanese. Nor did mainlanders have much democratic experience before the Communist usurpation in 1949. The National Assembly, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan were elected before the government withdrew to Taiwan. But local elections were little more than a promise of the Constitution, which didn't come into effect until 1947.

Chinese government was returned to Taiwan in the fall of 1945. By 1950, the voters of Hualien were choosing a county council. This was the beginning of the province's self-government. In that same year, magistrates were chosen for Hualien and Taitung Counties. The first Provincial Assembly dates to 1951. Over the years, the democratic experience has been extended to the level of villages and townships. All over the island, neighbors are electing neighbors to represent them. Government by those the people know and trust is bound to be good and reliable government. That has been the experience of the Republic of China on Taiwan as surely as it was of the Greek city states, the Swiss cantons and the New England town meeting.

This year's Taiwan and local elections were especially spirited. Although the opposition New China Party and the Democratic Socialists are not especially active, independent candidates opposed the majority Kuomintang in important races. One of the nonpartisan contenders, Su Nan-cheng, won the mayor's post in Tainan with more than 190,000 votes, the biggest number received by any candidate. Overall, however, the Kuomintang was rewarded with the trust of the people for its excellent candidates and its many years of faithful service. Of the 189 seats at stake, the Kuomintang won 145 while the independents were taking 44.

Regrettably, the official minority parties—Young China and Democratic Socialists—fielded only 5 candidates out of the total of more than 400. None of them won. That left the opposition in the hands of the independents. Because of the Communist emergency, the establishment of new political parties is prohibited. That did not seem to faze the independents. It might be better if their candidates reinvigorated the existing minority parties. But having decided not to do that, they still constitute a powerful force for the advancement of the Chinese democratic process.

This is not objectionable to the Kuomintang, which has always considered that it must be effectively opposed at the polls one day. The KMT won its votes and its victory on a basis of a job well done and not because it stands behind and with the government. The election law and the Election Commission are established to prevent the monopolization of political power by the Kuomintang or any other party. This is not only a guarantee of Free Chinese democracy but a striking contrast to the performance of the Chinese Communists, who eschew popular elections of any kind because they would surely lose them.

Voters turned to younger candidates in this election. The average age of those elected was 43.25, or nearly two years younger than in the 1977 election. The age of new mayors and county magistrates averages 45.68, while that of Provincial Assemblymen and city councilmen is 42.98. The educational level is high. Assemblymen and councilmen include 95 college graduates, including two with doctor's degrees and six with master's degrees, 73 high school graduates and 1 junior high school graduate. Of the 19 mayors and magistrates, one has a high school diploma and the others are college graduates. Three hold master's degrees. Twenty-three of those elected to the Provincial Assembly and city councils are women.

The party of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Founding Father of the Republic of China, won substantially but not by a landslide. That probably is the way Dr. Sun would want it at this stage of the nation's democratic development. The period of democratic tutelage envisaged by Dr. Sun is over. Averaging a victory in every four contests, the independents are making themselves heard. They have been challenging the Kuomintang to do better in the Legislative Yuan and the Control Yuan during the last year and now will be doing the same at lower levels.

Of the three mayoralty contests, only that in Tainan went to an independent. Kuomintang candidates won Taichung and Keelung. Three counties—Ilan, Changhua and Pingtung—went to independents. The other 13 magistrates came from the ranks of the Kuomintang. Of the Provincial Assembly's 77 seats, 60 went to the Kuomintang and 17 to the independents. The count in the new Taipei City Council is 38 KMT members and 13 independents; this was down by 5 for the majority party. The Kaohsiung City Council race came out with 32 seats in the hands of the Kuomintang and 10 occupied by independents. This was the first council contest in the southern port city, which became a special municipality after the last local elections.

Chiu Chuang-huan, chairman of the Central Election Commission, said the balloting had brought the people of the Republic of China to a higher level of political awareness and laid a firm foundation for the future development of democracy. From Kuan Chung, director of the Kuomintang Taipei City Committee, and Cheng Hsin-hsiung, came citation of candidates for their law-abiding spirit and enthusiastic campaigns. Opposition leaders were also satisfied. One of them, Kang Ning-hsiang, a member of the Legislative Yuan, said the election demonstrated support of democratic rule.

The Kuomintang made important comebacks in three races lost four years ago: the magistracies of Kaohsiung and Taoyuan Counties and the mayorship of Taichung City. These posts are adjudged more important than the lost magistracies of Ilan, Pingtung and Changhwa. In the races for mayors and magistrates, KMT candidates received 59 percent of the votes. Kuomintang figures for the other contests were 72 percent for Provincial Assembly seats, 69 percent for the Taipei City Council and 68 percent for the Kaohsiung City Council.

Of the 18 Kuomintang members who quit the party or violated party regulations to run, not one attained office. Five sought city or county posts after resigning and another seven ignored party decisions against them. Six sought Provincial Assembly seats without success. Political observers hailed this as a voter endorsement of party discipline and an expression for support of the Kuomintang.

As for the opposition, its strength seemed to be concentrated in Taipei. This is a normal reflection of democratic growth, which almost always gives an advantage to the opposition in its principal intellectual centers. Taipei is not only the temporary capital of the Republic of China but the seat of Taiwan's major universities and most of its cultural organizations. The level of sophistication is higher than that of the countryside and the smaller cities. Eight of the nine independent nominees were successful in Taipei.

The Kuomintang did not nominate candidates for every office in every district. In some races, it allowed members to run on their own and provided only nominal assistance. The opposition, although not formally organized, followed a similar strategy but with less success. Another change in the political picture was the increased success of candidates who were not born in Taiwan. In earlier elections, native sons have usually prevailed, whether Kuomintang members or independents. Voters increasingly seemed to be following the government's position that the Free Chinese of Taiwan are all one people without regard to provincial origin. Many of the campaigners urged a breaking down of provincial barriers; the voters appeared to agree in both their applause and their casting of ballots. Many of the KMT's nominees were newcomers to politics. The fact that they offered youth, good educations and achievement in private life contributed to their successful campaigns.

If personalities were of less importance, issues were more so. Both KMTers and independents criticized the government on occasion and stressed constructive programs of their own. Candidates stood for more than in the past, and the voters responded. Much more interest was shown in questions of substance and less in the political sidelines of baby-kissing and such Chinese equivalents as pretending to be inferior so as to flatter the voter.

Campaigning was mercifully brief compared with some Western equivalents. The first five days were given over to meetings sponsored by the individual candidates. These were held under rules laid down by the Central Election Committee but allowed considerable leeway as to places of meetings, times and the like. The second five-day period was restricted to government forums held in public buildings. Each candidate was given 10 minutes to present his position. Although the allotted time was short, voters had an opportunity to compare positions—much as did the U.S. electorate in the debates between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

Democracy has not been easy to implement in the Republic of China, considering the unique situation of the central government and its enforced relocation in only two provinces (the so-called offshore islands are in Fukien rather than Taiwan Province). Envisaged as the sovereign of the vast mainland, the central government has had only Taiwan and the offshore islands to take care of. However, this is more than a matter of allocating power to both central and provincial levels in an area of only 14,000 square miles.

As already noted, the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan were elected on the mainland under the Constitution before the Communist usurpation. After the move to Taiwan, most of the electorate was cut off from further participation in national elections. The parliamentary bodies had to be extended—at first without elections, subsequently with partial elections to fill vacancies for the two provinces under or partially under the government's control and to reflect population increase. This has been difficult; it would be hard for any country. Imagine the United States attempting to carry on democracy in Hawaii with the continental states under Communist control.

A year ago, the Legislative Yuan was reconstituted with 97 new members serving three-year terms in a parliamentary body with a total composition of 403. The newcomers make up about half of the legislators attending sessions regularly. Members whose terms are indefinitely extended pending the Republic of China's return to the mainland are aging. They were elected a generation ago. The newcomers tend to be better educated and more sophisticated. Their numbers include 26 overseas Chinese as well as politicians with local constituencies.

Members of the government—including Premier Sun Yun-suan—admit that interpellations have become a good deal tougher. Not that the administrators of the past were doing anything wrong, but they were rarely called to account for detailed explanation of either policies or actions. Now they are. The questioning is long and searching. If government administrators do not satisfy the lawmakers, they are called back again.

The Legislative Yuan is also making changes in its organization. The tenure of the body's president and vice president have been limited. Sessions formerly were confined to the morning; now they are also held in the afternoon. Veteran senior members who have been carrying on the task of legislating despite the illnesses and absences of colleagues are not opposed to change. Most of them welcome the newcomers and their fund of energy. Some of the neophytes have also learned that the old-timers have a great deal to teach them, and that legislating is more than making a few new laws.

New members are moving in the direction of a staff system that will enable them to keep closer tabs on the government and do a better job of preparing legislation, which in the past has been mainly based on the submissions of the administration. Not all of the veteran legislators are prepared to go this far but are coming around to the idea that changes are necessary.

There inevitably has been some conflict, too. Last July, 32 freshman legislators walked out of the chamber so that a measure could not be passed. The bill involved reduction of the commodity tax on sugar from 30 percent to 15 percent. The legislative strikers, including 20 members of the KMT, wanted the levy eliminated completely. Taiwan is a sugar producer and the amount of the tax is important to the people. The legislators' position was taken with a view to the fact that they must be re-elected, whereas the original members need not face on electorate while the Communist insurrection continues.

This case has also raised the question of party responsibility in the Legislative Yuan. In the past, the party has not had much cause for concern about the discipline of members who serve in the legislature. The newcomers are changing that in much the same way that the U.S. Congress was given a new look in the last election. The majority party has become aware of its obligation to provide guidance and a legislative program geared to the needs and recommendations of the administration.

The first Legislative Yuan had 733 members and its quorum was set at a fifth of the membership, or 177. With the active membership down to well under 300 and on occasion to not much over 200, the quorum of 177 is not easily attained. In the past some legislators did not show up but were signed in by their colleagues. New members now request a roll-call from time to time. This could easily place undue power in the hands of a small minority. President Chiang Ching-kuo, who is also Chairman of the Kuomintang, has urged legislators to improve their attendance record. Other revisions are contemplated to bring the Legislative Yuan up to date, make it more effective and provide a strong contrast to the government of the Chinese Communists, which summons the legislature only once every severed years for indulgence in rubber-stamping.

Free China's democracy is not afraid of the powers of the central government. This is one of the teachings of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in his Principle of Democracy. More than half a century ago he wrote: "After China secures a powerful government, we must not be afraid, as Western peoples are, that the government will become too strong and run out of control. This is because our plan for the reconstructed state includes the division of the political power of the whole state into two parts. The political power will be given into the hands of the people, who will have a full degree of sovereignty and will be able to control directly the affairs of state; this political power is popular sovereignty.

"The other power is government, and we will put that entirely in the government organs, which will be powerful and will manage all the nation's business; this political power is the power of government. If the people have a full measure of political sovereignty and the methods of exercising popular control over the government are well worked out, we need not fear that the government will become too powerful and uncontrollable. Westerners formerly did not dare to build machines with over 100,000 horsepower, because machines were not perfectly constructed and the means of control were not compact; they were afraid of their power and would not risk the control of them. But now such wonderful improvements have been made in machinery, the machines themselves are so well constructed and the control mechanism is so compact that Westerners are building machines with tremendous horsepower. If we want to build a much-improved political machinery, we must follow the same line: we must have a complete and powerful government organ and at the same time have a compact method of popular sovereignty to exercise control over the government organ. Western governments lack this compact and effective control, so they are not yet making much progress. Let us not follow in their tracks. Let the people in thinking about government distinguish between sovereignty and power. Let the great political force of the state be divided; first let there be the power of the government and then the power of the people. Such a division will make the government the machinery and the people the engineer. The attitude of the people toward their government will then be like the attitude of the engineer toward his machinery."

Despite the obstacles put in the way of the Republic of China by the Communist usurpation of the mainland, the machinery is working well on Taiwan and the engineer is definitely in charge.

One commentary on the election said "Democracy has come of age in the Republic of China. This doesn't mean that we have nothing more to learn. Nor does it imply that politics will always be sweetness and roses. But after a very spirited campaign, the people went to the polls peacefully and in good order and expressed themselves in no uncertain terms. The majority Kuomintang won a substantial victory but not a landslide. Now that the period of democratic tutelage is nearing an end, the Kuomintang will have to look to its laurels.

"Everyone deserves credit for a model election. More than 71 percent of eligible voters turned out. Among democratic countries today, that is a substantial figure. Both the voting and the counting went smoothly. The television cameras were right there throughout the evening with an all-networks, all-island show. Radio made an important contribution. For the first time ever, 161 stations were joined in a network to carry the results to the most remote hamlets and to the mainland. The election law worked well. Violations were relatively few. Both KMT members and independents agreed that the Election Committee's judgments were fair and impartial.

"This country moves into the next few years with democratic reinvigoration. We have political differences without political disunity. Those who tried to make trouble—to use democratic process to destroy democracy—failed completely. At the same time, the majority Kuomintang has been challenged to do even better in representing the people and building Taiwan into a model province for mainland recovery. Government, people and the politically minded have every reason to feel proud of themselves. This election was a firm demonstration that no one is going to drive wedges between the people of the Republic of China."

The world was also called upon to contrast the democratic record of the Republic of China with the absence of democracy on the Chinese mainland. "Red China has existed for 32 years," said the commentary. "In all that time, the Communists have had not one election of any kind to justify their existence and their rule. Since the departure of the Republic of China's government, the people of the mainland have never seen a ballot. Even within the Chinese Communist party, voting is confined to rubber-stamping those chosen by top leaders. When the ROC government moved to Taipei, the people of this island were also outside the pale of democracy. During the 50-year occupation period of the Japanese ending in 1945, people didn't dare even open their mouths in criticism, to say nothing of casting a vote for anybody or anything.

"The growth of democracy has been evolutionary and successful. To be fair, those abroad who believe in freedom and democracy should contrast what has been achieved in the Republic of China on Taiwan with the continuing total tyranny of the Communists on the Chinese mainland. The strongest card to be played against the Soviet Union could well be that of democracy. It is a card which the Chinese Communists do not possess."

With one election finished, the Republic of China swung into the second round of local democratic practice. Registrations were accepted by the Provincial Election Committee from December 4 to 13 for 799 seats on 19 city and county councils and for 312 mayors and chiefs of cities, towns and villages under the 16 Taiwan counties. The campaign for city and county councils will be held from January 5 to 15 and that for mayors and chiefs from January 11 to 15. Election day will be January 16.