Masum Billah :
Taiwan has elected her first female President named Ms Tsai who leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which wants independence from China. In her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan’s democracy and both sides must ensure there are no provocations. A series of her utterances reflects the true democratic spirit. We find its proof when she says “I also want to emphasize that both sides of the Taiwanese Strait have a responsibility to find mutually acceptable means of interaction that are based on dignity and reciprocity. “We must ensure that no provocations or accidents take place,” “Any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations”. She also promised to co-operate with other political parties on major issues and it reminds the political culture we have developed. “I’m sorry … We’ve lost.
The KMT has suffered an election defeat,” KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu told the crowd gathered at the party’s Taipei headquarters. “We haven’t worked hard enough and we failed voters’ expectations.” These utterances by the defeated party which was in state power for two consecutive terms contain many elements of learning for the political culture we have developed. Can we imagine the defeated party will so clandestinely accept the public mandate?
Several hours after polling closed, final election results showed Tsai received 56.1% of the popular vote to 31% for Chu. Results also showed her DPP party will take control of Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, for the first time in the country’s history.
The people of Taiwan were fed up with the sluggish economy, which grew only 1% last year, and wages that have long been stagnant under the leadership of the KMT and outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou and the results of the election tell how they served the country in their two terms and also how people have reciprocated their service. .
Tsai has pledged to revitalize the sluggish economy of this de facto nation of 23 million by diversifying trade with South, Southeast and East Asia, thus breaking with the KMT’s policy of greater integration with China. Beijing still claims Taiwan as a “renegade province” to be reclaimed by force if necessary – a relic of China’s civil war and the flight across the strait in 1949 by the defeated Nationalist forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Because of Chinese pressure, Taiwan is only officially recognized by a handful of nations and has no U.N. seat still.
Tsai was born in an affluent Taipei family. She is now 59 years old. She studied law in Taiwan before earning her masters at Cornell University and a doctorate at the London School of Economics.
She narrowly lost out on the presidency four years ago. The London School of Economics postgraduate had considered a return to academia before deciding to launch a second attempt at Taiwan’s highest office. Analysts have said growing public dissatisfaction with the outgoing KMT president, Ma Ying-jeou, and an economy that weakened dramatically last year, helped propel Tsai to victory. Ma, who gained the presidency in 2008, had faced increasing criticism for what critics described as his opaque style of governance and the widespread perception that his pro-China policies had failed to deliver significant economic gains.
In her first address after the results became clear Tsai said “For me this is not just about an election victory,” “The results today tell me that the people want to see a government more willing to listen to the people, a government that is more transparent and accountable, and a government that is more capable of leading us past our current challenges and taking care of those in need.
They tell me that the people expect a government that can lead this country into the next generation and a government that is steadfast in protecting this country’s sovereignty.” She added: “I will march forwards, together with the 23 million people of Taiwan.
Together we will overcome the challenges that this country faces. We will not be divided by an election. Instead we will become even more united because of our democracy.” Tsai deserves salute from the whole democratic community of the globe. There must be a party in power and another one will work as shadow government to give constant feedback to the ruling party for steering the nation forward ensuring common people’s basic needs. When this chain fails, whatever we say and do the reflection of democracy cannot be seen there. She believes in the unity of the nation though the party agenda may be miles apart or reverse from each other. We find a true democratic leadership in Tsai and Taiwan will definitely go ahead.
The election results of Taiwan shows and tells the referendum on Taiwan’s relationship with its cross-strait neighbor China, the second largest economy in the world. This relation was strengthened during the reign of Ma but the economic benefits of deeper integration with China never materialized for most ordinary citizens, and many voters, especially younger ones, have grown resistant to China exerting too much control over Taiwan.
It clearly explains when common people don’t get the share of economic benefit of a country, it never can claim a true democracy. When people get opportunity to exercise their voting rights, the true result surfaces.
This result is unwelcome to the parties which don’t really believe in democracy. Lip service democracy can never bring benefit for the ordinary people exact the party opportunists. Foreign relations particularly with the big neighbors must be a very significant point for any small but democratic state. It must be dealt with very ingeniously for the mutual benefits of both. Our example is India.
We cannot avoid India and cannot expect always that India will do everything good for us. Still we must have closer ties with her.
A teacher named Gine Shuen, makes a good comment on the foreign and neighboring policy of Tsia thus”Tsai is an intelligent woman,” “Although she is the leader of the DPP, she doesn’t insist on separating Taiwan from China, nor on making Taiwan too close to China. She keeps an open mind, wants communication and has a tolerant attitude, which is the best way to deal with the cross-strait relationship.” We wish her successful and effective tenure as president of Taiwan.
(Masum Billah works as an education specialist in BRAC Education Program he regularly writes on various national and international issues), Email: [email protected])
