The great significance of the elections in Taiwan is what was rejected. Voters have shown that, after 55 years, they have had more than enough of Nationalist Party rule. PNS commentator Edward Liu speculates on the possibility that the mainland Chinese Communist Party may be facing some of the same problems. Liu, an ethnic Chinese born and raised in the Philippines, is a practicing attorney in San Francisco.

The stunning result of elections in Taiwan is not so much a validation of a young, native Taiwanese proponent of Independence as it is a revolt against a ruling party, the Kuomintang.

It is a vote to repudiate a stagnant, corrupt, unresponsive political party which in 55 years of governing that island nation has grown smug and arrogant, and alienated many Taiwanese, especially its youth.

It is a mandate to reject "hei-jin" (Black Gold) money politics which involves not only corruption within government but use of government power in the private economic sector. It is said that the KMT is the world's richest political party with over $10 billion in assets -- all hard tangible and liquid.

Its business extensions at home include news media, insurance, real estate, trading and more. Its extraterritorial extensions encompass the United States. It has a tremendous presence in the corridors of power in the Washington beltway, from lobbyists to congressmen.

Interestingly, the problems of stagnancy which beset the KMT apply equally to the Communist Party of China. Both sides of the Taiwan straits, until this week, were essentially dominated by highly hierarchical political parties formed along the same mold.

Both the KMT and the CCP are Bolshevik in organizational philosophy. Both are headed at the top by aging leaders. Both suffer from internal generation gaps. Both have lost ideological fervor, and have been in power too long.

Yesterday's revolutionaries are today's reactionaries. It was rather ironic that in the week before the vote, mainland PRC officials were working feverishly to maintain the status quo on Taiwan and almost wistfully hoping the KMT standard-bearer, Lien Chan, would win. Perhaps, deep in their minds, China's leaders would much rather do business with a party which acts and behaves like theirs.

Two years ago, Asia suffered an economic meltdown which called into question the soundness of its financial and economic institutions. Today, the economies of that part of the world are readjusting and reforming for the better.

This week, in Taiwan, in the political sphere, we are witnessing a political change which has broad implications beyond Taiwan itself.

It is not so much the "I" word -- independence -- that is fundamentally at stake. It is a signal for political change, an overhaul of parties, such as the KMT and the CCP, and the political culture they represent.

Although I am not an advocate of Independence for Taiwan, I gloated quietly over Chen Shui Bian's win because a new, younger face, a new party, is emerging to challenge these aging, archaic political parties.