Peaceful transitions show democracy can work in Asia: legislator

"The transitions of power in Taiwan -- it speaks for itself loud and clear our conviction that democracy can work in Asia, " John Chiang said at the Symposium on Democracy Building in Asia, which is being jointly held by U.S. think tank the Heritage Foundation, the nongovernmental TFD, and the Institute for National Policy Research (INPR).

Chiang was referring to the changes of government in Taiwan in both 2000 and 2008.

Taiwan's 2000 presidential election realized an unprecedented transition of power in the Republic of China's 90-year history, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ousted the long-ruling KMT.

In 2008 the KMT returned to power following landslide wins in both the Jan. 12 legislative elections and the March 22 presidential election, marking the second time Taiwan's electorate had put the opposition party in power in the country's history.

Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, echoed Chiang's views Wednesday, saying that while he was well aware of Taiwan's blemishes, he also knew how far Taiwan has come in terms of self governance, as the country has moved from authoritarianism to fighting communism, to a vigorous participatory democracy.

"The peaceful transfer of power has validated Taiwan's democratic experiment in the eyes of the world," Feulner said.

"Taiwan is better for having proved a democratic proposition through this repeated, peaceful transition of power from one political party to another," he added.

Speaking of building democracy in Asia, Chiang said it is an enormous and very difficult task to have democracy take root in Asia in a short period of time, given the continent's complexity, with its range of political and economic systems and great variety of cultural, linguistic and religious traditions and practices.

Describing the discussion of the development of democracy in Asia that is taking place in Taiwan as very appropriate, Feulner said that as unsettling as changes of government can be, they themselves have testified to the value of freedom.

"Whatever our peers in non-democracies may tell us, their own people want for the power to be free to choose, that is to change their governments," he added.

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