Now a rocky political transition and economic uncertainty have more than tempered those high hopes. To be fair, Taiwan's woes didn't appear overnight when Chen was elected on March 18, 2000. Cleaning up the KMT's legacy of financial mismanagement and deep-rooted corruption was bound to be hard. The dramatic slowing of the global economy has highlighted cracks in Taiwan's export-driven economy and banking sector in a way the KMT never had to face. And Chen is saddled with a constitutionally weak presidency and an opposition-controlled legislature.
Democracy is indeed messy.
As a result, Chen's supporters argue, he needs more time to steady his footing after the KMT's long rule. The ruling party has to learn how to learn to rule a country. The opposition has to learn how to be a responsible opposition. That's the price we have to pay if we want to have a democracy. Observers say a series of missteps and lost opportunities led to Chen's political paralysis and have raised concern over his leadership abilities.