PROMOTING EFFECTIVE DEMOCRACY, CHINESE STYLE

They approached the presiding officer, bowed before Sun Yat-sen's portrait, and delivered their commentaries within the prescribed four minutes, bowed again, and returned to their seats. Ever courteous and dignified, the 170 members of the Conference on the Development of the Nation (Kuo-chia fa-chan hui, henceforth NDC) convened December 2328, 1996, at the International Convention Center in the heart of Taipei's new city center. This event was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill conference of the kind Taiwan's capital hosts every week. For four months the Office of the President had been preparing to convene the leaders of Taiwan's main political parties-the Kuomintang (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the New Party (NP)-and prominent representatives of government, academia, business, and the media to discuss critical problems facing the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. But this conference was to produce more than discussion. Participants were expected to agree on some key political and economic reforms, and from such consensus, constitutional reform and legislative action would follow to revitalize the nation's economy, render the government more efficient and responsive to the people's will, and rally the people to support a national policy toward the People's Republic of China (PRC).