The Cross Strait Times

On Friday, October 13, 2006, the Pan-Blue Coalition of the Kuomintang (KMT) and People’s First Party (PFP) initiated a second recall vote of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the Legislative Yuan. The motion failed.

The Blues needed a 2/3 majority in the Legislative Yuan for the motion to pass but were only able to garner a slim majority. The Blues control slightly more than half of the legislature; the Pan-Green Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) control the other half. The DPP boycotted the recall, and the TSU cast invalid ballots in protest.

On the streets of Taipei, protests demanding the resignation of President Chen have been going on for months. When former DPP Chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) joined the protests in August, the movement gathered momentum, billing itself as a cross-coalition anti-corruption crusade. On this year’s National Day, Shih staged a “universal seige”* around the Presidential Office.

What happened in Taiwan that led to such drastic actions?

When DPP politician Chen Shui-bian was elected president in March 2000, it was a landmark event. The authoritarian KMT had become democratic and allowed for a peaceful transition of political power to another party. True democracy had finally come to the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC). The people of the ROC had enough hope for their new governing party that Chen was reelected in a narrow election in March of 2004. Since then, however, Chen’s presidency has been dogged by a slowing economy, restrictions on trade with the Mainland that would restart the local economy, the stalling of peace talks between Mainland China and Taiwan, and, most recently, allegations of corruption. President Chen’s popularity has fallen tremendously, and even his most ferverent supporters have been crushed by disappointment.

Chen’s falling popularity and allegations of corruption gave the Blues an opportunity to remove Chen from office as “the right thing to do for the people of Taiwan,” although some may speculate that the Blues’ true motives were to get back at the Greens for having lost power to them. Protests against Chen from both Blues and Greens have erupted in the streets and are still continuing, demanding his resignation. So far, Chen has denied any wrongdoing and has refused to step down. Many DPP lawmakers, while frustrated with Chen have still rallied around him to protect their own party. The DPP has protested the Blue recall motions, saying that Chen has thus far only been accused and not indicted or found guilty. The DPP has also protested that the street protests were undemocratic, saying that forcing the president to step down through protests would be equivalent to mob rule. Furthermore, the polarity of Taiwanese politics has attracted a mostly Blue crowd to the protests who have booed away anti-corruption DPP and TSU lawmakers, making the protest no longer truly cross-coalition.

I agree with the DPP on this instance. Chen has not been charged with any crime, and while the people have a right to protest, using the protests to force the president to step down is undemocratic.

Compare the Blues’ demands for Chen to resign from the presidency over his alleged corruption to the suspension of Keelung mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利) from the KMT and but not from his mayoral office over his charged corruption. If the Blues want to be serious about being against corruption, the same standards should be applied to both Blues and Greens. Shih at least lashed out at the KMT and its chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for not being just as harsh on his own party members as the KMT was being on Chen.

Since all people are innocent until proven guilty, no action should be taken to oust Chen unless he is found to be guilty, or if the judiciary rules Chen as innocent if the evidence provided can clearly show that Chen is guilty. The problem is, as President of the ROC on Taiwan, Chen has presidential immunity and cannot be investigated until the end of his term in 2008. The fact that Chen is unwilling to submit himself to any investigation makes his claims of innocence rather suspect. If he is as innocent as he says he is, then he should let himself be investigated and prove his innocence.

Since the failure of the most recent recall motion, Ma Ying-jeou has requested that the KMT hold off on any more recall motions until a judicial ruling is made. That is truly a fair and democratic practice. It’s a shame the recall motion wasn’t held off before, as the past two recall attempts have seriously hurt the KMT’s reputation as a now-democratic party. As for the PFP, I think their continuing calls to recall Chen without an indictment or judicial ruling are not helping the Blues at all. The PFP’s threats to end their alliance with the KMT for backing down from their campaign to oust Chen threatens to tear apart the Pan-Blue Coalition. If the Blues want to maintain their hold on the legislature and maintain their democratic legitimacy, the PFP needs to be reasonable instead of rabble-rousing and plunging Taiwanese politics further into chaos.

To me, the use of the corruption accusations to demand and shame Chen into stepping down through protests and legislative recalls are unnecessary. Chen is already tremendously unpopular, therefore, the people of the ROC should have the right to recall Chen themselves.

From the ROC constitution:

Chapter II, Article 16: The people shall have the right to present petitions, lodge complaints, and institute legal proceedings.

Chapter II, Article 17: The people shall have the rights of election, recall, initiative, and referendum.

Chapter XII, Article 133: A person duly elected may be recalled by his constituency [bold mine] in accordance with law.

Compare this with how the presidential recall drive is being done now in the Legislative Yuan:

• Legislative vote -> Popular vote -> Recall results

Personally, I think the way the recall is being done now is getting democracy backwards. While it’s true that many Taiwanese despise Chen and don’t have a problem with the legislators’ recall drive, this recall drive certainly looks more like a move by politicians for their own political gains instead of an action of genuine concern for the Taiwanese people. If the recall drive were truly to be a democratic process, the general public should be involved instead of the legislature.

The “California Solution”

On October 7, 2003, the people of the US state of California recalled Governor Gray Davis. Davis himself committed no crime other than being the leader of a state whose economy had stalled; he was just so unpopular with the people of California that the Californians had enough and removed him from office. How were the Californians able to do this?

For a recall election to happen in California, the people must circulate a petition within a certain time period that gathers signatures from registered voters. The minimum number of signatures required is 12% of the number of votes cast in the last statewide election (900,000).

If the Blues want to legitimately say that it is the will of the people to recall Chen, they need to circulate a petition in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. If that is done, the steps in recalling the president would then truly be the will of the people:

• Popular petition -> Popular recall election -> Recall results

The results of the popular election should be valid no matter the turnout in order to prevent a boycott at the polls. Of course, the problem is that the constitution has no stipulation on how many signatures need to be gathered in order to trigger a recall. Perhaps an amendment to make clear how many signatures must be gathered may require an amendment to the constitution. Such an amendment could be blocked by the DPP, but if the DPP blocks such a move they would be trampling on the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of the people to recall the president. A party that claims to be more democratic than the KMT should not obstruct a fair and democratic proposition if it doesn’t want to undermine its own democratic principles. As for the Blues, if they claim to be the vanguards of Chinese democracy now, then they need use democratic methods to remove the president if they feel he is unfit for the job.

References:
Constitution of the Republic of China
Amendments to the ROC Constitution

* “universal seige” in Mandarin is pronounced tian1 xia4 wei2 gong1, a homonym and pun on Sun Yat-sen’s slogan, “All under heaven for all.”