Looking back over the KMT's history, the chairman -- and other people in other senior positions in the party -- were never selected by a democratic election. Therefore, the first elections for chairman will be a milestone for the party. Nevertheless, Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who is legislative speaker and a KMT vice chairman, insists that he will run for the chairmanship only if current KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) refuses to pursue another term. On top of that, the old guard of the KMT backs Lien's re-election, thereby complicating the issue.

Ma's announcement that he would run for the position was expected by everyone, and the decision was the result of a careful evaluation by Ma and his political team.

Because Ma has been popular within and outside the KMT and there have been many calls for him to run for the KMT chairmanship and the presidency, his seeking the post seems to be reasonable and proper at this stage.

The KMT is an autocratic political party, and its chairman assumes great power and is inevitably burdened with a heavy workload and responsibilities. In the era of the two former presidents, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), or even in the era of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the KMT was indistinguishable from the state. As a result, the party's leader was also the national leader and national resources were also party resources.

Ma, a popularly elected mayor of Taiwan's capital city, already has heavy responsibilities running Taipei City Government. If he were elected KMT chairman, holding the two jobs concurrently may well prove too much of a burden.

Furthermore, a changeover of the KMT chairmanship does not seem as simple a matter as for the DPP and the TSU. With former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) having served as chairmen, the DPP has only now returned to a situation in which the chairmanship is exclusive of other positions.

After the KMT's defeat in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the party vowed to push ahead with internal reform, but with limited results. Last year, the KMT once again expressed determination to reform the party, yet the results were still nowhere to be seen. But following two presidential election defeats, an overhaul is unavoidable and the future chairman, whether Ma or someone else, will have to assume responsibilities for reforming the party.

Overhauling the KMT will not be easy. To simply establish a democratic mechanism within the party will be difficult enough, and the reforms will also impact the power structure of the party. Both wisdom and strength will be needed to get KMT heavyweights to release their hold on power, and the task will be made more difficult for Ma, since some KMT heavyweights have already expressed their distrust of him.

The restructuring of political power is not just about placating party heavyweights, and the whole process is a huge and difficult project.

In addition to a political restructuring, the KMT still has to undergo a series of reforms, including an overhaul of the party's central and local organizations, its decision-making process, as well as address party assets. These issues are a lot more complicated than the affairs of Taipei City. Acquiring unified control over the KMT would be a great challenge for Ma. His personal charisma is greater than his administrative ability and his efforts in the Taipei City Government have yet to win the approval of Taipei's residents.

Ma's supporters within the government are not particularly numerous and his core leadership team is made up of only a few people; it is likely that they will not be adequate to undertake the task of reforming the KMT.

But even if Wang announces that he will run for the chairmanship, he will also face similar difficulties. Among Taiwan's politicians, Wang stands out as an adept strategist who can maintain good relations with other political parties. The major difficulty he faces is that he would be holding the positions of chairman and legislative speaker concurrently. This dual status would cause fundamental problems in both the operation of the party and the government.

If neither Ma nor Wang is suitable for the KMT chairmanship, will the party be able to find someone else to take over the position? There doesn't seem to be anyone. This lack of candidates constitutes a crisis for the KMT.

Even if the KMT's leadership held open elections for the chairmanship, there are only one or two KMT members who might throw their hat in the ring. The problem is derived from the party's organization. It has failed to nurture capable leaders because of its authoritarian past. After the defeat in last year's presidential election, the call for consolidating the KMT's leadership was a vivid demonstration of such authoritarian politics.

This authoritarian organization must undergo reforms before it can be transformed into a democratic political party. Open elections for KMT chairman are crucial to the party's democratization. I genuinely hope that the new KMT chairman will take over this tough post to implement the democratic reform within the party.

Chiu Hei-yuan is a professor of sociology at National Taiwan University and a member of the Taipei Society.

TRANSLATED BY YA-TI LIN AND DANIEL CHENG