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Updated Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:17 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Ma Ying-jeou starts party reform in earnest

Reform is easier said than done. History tells us all but a few reforms have ended in disaster in China. Remember Mao Zedong's “Great Leap Forward” reform movement in the late 1950s? Or his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that lasted for close to a decade? Deng Xiaoping's open China policy, an economic reform, seems to have succeeded. Taiwan had a highly successful one; the land reform of 1949, albeit coupled with the bloody February 28 Incident of 1947, helped foster the movement for independence.

Nobody knows if Ma's party reform is well underway until after a new central standing committee is elected and installed. The disqualified pair cannot run. But those who may have received gifts from the duo may stand for membership in the new politburo, while the disciplinary committee continues its probe into corruption among them. On the other hand, people suspect members of the central committee were elected by bribery. There are altogether 210 of them, of whom many are said to have been given red wine, salted mackerel and whatnots. Some party delegates to the national congress on October 17 may also have received these gifts. In other words, the suspicion of wrong-doing can't be totally wiped out after the new central standing committee is formed.

If there were few men and women of proven incorruptibility in the new lineup of the central standing committee, the people would have no trust in the ruling Kuomintang which the opposition Democratic Progressive Party equates with corruption and money politics. The chances are that many of the old faces in the just dismissed politburo may show up again in the new.

Be that as it may, Ma has passed the point of no return on his way to ridding the ruling party of corruptible elements. The task ahead is truly daunting. The use of bribery to get elected delegates to the national congress to elect the party's central committee is deep-rooted. It became especially rampant after Taiwan's democratization. A bad habit dies hard.

We take our hats off to President Ma for his bravery to meet the challenge and the strong determination with which he is carrying out the Kuomintang's house-cleaning. There is no guarantee that the reform will be successful. But the start has been made, and we wish him every success.

For a reformed Kuomintang will give Taiwan a clean and capable government and set a strong example for the main opposition party to follow. Then there will be hope for clean politics in our democracy.

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