TAIPEI -- The ground heaved and shook in Taiwan's turbulent political landscape last Tuesday, and by the time the dust had cleared after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Tang Fei, President Chen Shui-bian's 5 month-old model for government -- in his words, "a government for all the people" -- had collapsed. "Not collapsed. Died," said Joseph Wu, professor of political science at National Chengchi University in Taipei. "You can rebuild something that has collapsed. You cannot rebuild this. It is dead."
Not that Chen would now want to rebuild a model of government that performed so dismally in such a short space of time. Since he took the reins of power from the Kuomintang on May 20, Chen's "government for all the people" has isolated and frustrated his own Democratic Progressive Party, come dangerously close to causing a constitutional crisis, and confused the electorate about who exactly is in control of Taiwan.
It is all too easy to dismiss Chen with the benefit of hindsight. When he took office, he was staring down the gun barrel of an irate China threatened by the new government's leanings toward independence as well as a hostile KMT-controled legislature angry that the party had been dumped from power after 51 years of uninterrupted rule.