Taiwan's Presidential Politics: Democratization and Cross-strait Relations in the Twenty-first Century by Muthiah Alagappa

Author:Muthiah Alagappa [Alagappa, Muthiah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, General, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781315499116
Google: MSEvDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-28T04:59:47+00:00

Prospects

The history of the election of the DPP president, Chen Shui-bian, in Taiwan is the history of the democratization of Taiwan from a single-party-dominant or authoritarian state to a full multiparty democracy. It is within such a framework that one can ask how Taiwan’s experience is germane for the future political development of the remaining single-party-dominant states: Malaysia and Singapore.

In the case of Malaysia, recent political developments during and after the East Asian financial crisis suggest that the dominant position of UMNO and therefore BN is weakening. The possibility of being challenged in the future by a coalition of political parties can no longer be ruled out, though admittedly its realization remains vague at present. This situation recalls the rise of the DPP and the displacement of the KMT. Here indeed the history of the DPP may offer some lessons for Malaysia’s mobilized civil society and opposition forces. The formation of the DPP (with serious internal fragmentation and divisions that are part of its history) can serve as an object lesson, if not a model, for the alternative coalition, the Barisan Alternatif, which was formed initially in order to contest the 1999 general elections and perhaps displace the dominant party, UMNO—much like the early days of the DPP with its loose coalitions sharing a common aim of displacing the KMT from power. As we have seen, however, the substantive differences that separate the coalition partners in the Barisan Alternatif may be harder to overcome because of their differing party ideologies and issues of ethnicity and religion, specifically Islam—issues that were largely absent among the partners in the DPP’s formation. Nevertheless, recent developments indicate that the constituent parties of BA are willing to set aside significant differences in the interest of unseating the long-governing Barisan Nasional and UMNO. Its eventual success or failure to do so is now a matter of historical contingence.

In the case of Singapore, however, the fault lines inhered in Taiwan’s society and polity are completely absent. Although there are ethnic differences in Singapore, they are not politically divisive. The occasional instances of corruption will continue to be dealt with severely whenever discovered, in contrast to the conspicuous corruption and money politics of the KMT. The middle class in Singapore has no independent economic base, but is beholden to the economic policies of the PAP regime—in contrast to the Taiwanese middle class, which is independent of the KMT regime and therefore can be mobilized against it. The KMT under Lee Teng-hui was willing to democratize the political sphere as part of the strategy of secession from the PRC—whereas the PAP’s determination to maintain its dominance remains undiminished, unrepentant, and unyielding through its continuous manipulation of the political system and the cultural sphere. In sum, then, as the likelihood of political democratization is virtually nonexistent in Singapore, no experience of democratization anywhere in the world is relevant to Singapore.

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