Taipei

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, eight Taiwanese pro-democracy activists organized a human rights day march in the southern city of Kaohsiung. When police blocked the progress of the demonstrators (who had a permit), violence broke out. The organizers were arrested, court-martialed for sedition, and sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison. Taiwan was a one-party dictatorship then, and governed under martial law. But following the death in 1988 of Chiang Kai-shek’s son who was then Taiwan’s president, the island swiftly democratized.

Taiwan’s new democracy was admittedly young and a bit ragged around the edges leading into Saturday’s presidential election, but it had all the appearances of a successful system. One reason had been the stabilizing influence of the Kuomintang (the “Chinese Nationalist Party,” also known as the KMT), one of the oldest political parties in Asia, if not necessarily a particularly democratic one. After its defeat in the 2000 presidential polls by Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive (“Green”) party, the KMT formed a loose “Blue” coalition with other Taiwanese parties of the right which still wield significant influence in the country’s legislature. The KMT coalition’s most senior leaders, its dignified chairman, Dr. Lien Chan, and his vice presidential running mate, Dr. James Soong, were both respected in international circles as cultured and erudite politicians from one of Asia’s most successful economies.