Calling President-elect Ma a pragmatic candidate is naïve and oversimplifying the story. Ma is well known for playing word games to gain popularity. He is willing to say just anything to please the public and avoid responsibility. He does not have to worry about the mass media because of the existence of a mass system of covering up for individual interests in the KMT/Chinese tradition. He has demonstrated willing-ness to switch directions at any point of time and reverse what he said before. I would not count on his words and expect any achievement from him.
His father commanded and trained him to become a President. Now he has achieved a life-time goal and there is nothing left for him to strive as long as he con-tinue to feed the needy in his political system all who has a part of his presidency, in-cluding the mass media, the government workers, the personnel in the judicial, the law-enforcing and the banking system, the teachers in all public schools, etc. This is a very easy task for him because he only needs to follow what the KMT has been doing in the last 90+ years and the general public in Taiwan is very familiar with the schemes. The majority of people growing up in Taiwan knows and takes advantage of the tricks of KMT ruling. They are willing to play the games to receive some immedi-ate satisfaction and, at the same time, avoid hassles in return.
The ultimate goal of KMT and their individual members is individual gains from the political machine. This is evidenced in the methods of their recruitment. This so-called political party has never had policy or strategy for a long-running nation. The only agenda of the party is survival and individual profit in the survival games. The party capitalizes on the survival mode of the country without caring for the coun-try or the global world as a unit. Truth, the least important piece in their board games, has been and will be sacrificed as needed.
The Politics of Practical Nostalgia
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South Korea is also eager to relive its bygone boom. Its last president, Roh Moo Hyun, tried to radically restrain the nation's giant conglomerates, which he claimed had gained unfair advantages during decades of authoritarian rule. Roh preached higher taxes, wealth redistribution and greater independence from the country's traditional protector, the United States. His popularity suffered from policy flip-flops and bad management, but what really cost his allies the presidency was a 5 percent growth rate, declining foreign investment and paltry job creation. Now Lee, who promised in his Inaugural speech to go "beyond the age of ideology to the age of pragmatism," is planning steps "to boost investor and business morale," says Sakong Ill, co-chair of a new presidential competitiveness committee. Both Ma and Lee advocate deregulation and business tax cuts, and aim to build their capitals into regional financial hubs.
"Pragmatism in policymaking [is] spreading across the region," wrote Nicholas Kwan, regional head of research at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong in a recent note to clients. "Economic sense once again prevails over populist politics."
There is, however, a throwback, statist side to some of these leaders, who are setting specific growth targets and spending heavily to reach them—as did their predecessors from the '50s through the '90s. Lee's "Plan 747" aims to deliver 7 percent growth, a per capita income of $40,000 within a decade, and to earn South Korea a spot in the G7. Ma's "633 Plan" aims to achieve 6 percent annual growth, boost Taiwan's per capita income to $30,000 by 2016 and cut unemployment to 3 percent.
To promote growth and build financial hubs, both are doling out billions: Lee has proposed a multi-billion-dollar north-south canal and Ma favors $130 billion in public-works projects for upgraded mass transit and expanded airports and container terminals. Political scientist Shih Cheng-feng of National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan says such massive public works are "an old game" that will at best provide a short-term growth spurt.
Still, the urgent desire to rev up growth that animates Ma and Lee has also surfaced in Southeast Asia. Because both the economies and democracies are less developed in the Southeast, the electoral backlash against incumbents has been even more dramatic. In Malaysia, three tiny opposition parties nearly ousted a coalition that has reigned since independence in 1957. Led by Anwar Ibrahim—a former deputy prime minister who was purged in 1998 after clashing with strongman Mahathir Mohamad over how far Malaysia's economy should open—the opposition won control of two key industrial states and is now positioned to challenge Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. "Issues long considered too sensitive to broach—such as Malaysia's affirmative-action policy—are on the table," writes Sharma.
In neighboring Thailand, voters have broken a cycle of coups that goes back to the 1960s. In the past, junta leaders held on to power as long as they could and then installed civilian allies. But 14 months after generals ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, they were forced by public pressure to hold the Dec. 23 elections that Thaksin backers won. As a result, Thaksin has changed "the way things are done in Thailand," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "Today the forces at home and abroad are in his favor."
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