Until recently, the Taiwanese leadership shared the Chinese Communist vision of national reunification, and reinforced the One China narrative. The autocratic governments of the Guomindang retained seats in parliament for the mainland provinces. The rather delicate foundation for the diplomatic talks between Beijing and Taipei was "One government on both sides of the Taiwan strait"; in other words, both sides wanted to run the whole show. The new generation of Taiwanese democrats, including President Chen Shui-bian, are more focused on rights of self-determination. Regional self-government as a virtue in itself is a relatively new idea in Chinese political philosophy, and one in violent opposition to the One China framework of the PRC.

The Communist Party has tied Taiwan very closely to the national myth; there's little room for redrafting. Today's Chinese state is coherent and booming - it's not the fragmented disorder of the Republic. Hanging on so tightly to Taiwan makes it hard to accommodate any alternative approach without implicitly accepting self-determination, or its sibling, democracy.

A new constitution would be indispensable in ridding Taiwan of the rampant neo-colonialism that is sapping the nation's vitality through internal division.

Specifically, a new constitution, that at least defines the nation's territories, would make it clear to the future generations of Taiwanese just who they are and where their loyalty should reside. This would go a long way to counter the confusion the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), through its half-century of colonial rule, sought to sow in the mind of the Taiwanese public. Taiwan's ultimate survival depends on that clarity.

Taiwan's political mechanisms have sadly not yet been freed of the "greater China" ideology and its authoritarian tradition. To solve Taiwan's constitutional predicament, the real issue is not what part of the Constitution to amend. A new constitution is necessary, written by Taiwanese for Taiwanese and consistently democratic.

The Constitution is beyond hope. It couldn't be fixed by the past seven amendments and certainly can't be fixed by Ma. Amendments are tiny changes, temporary patches to win votes rather than part of a long-term strategy to build a Taiwanese constitution.