Who is President Chen Shui-bian's (
Political observers think that with PFP Chairman James Soong (
"The current Taipei mayoral election campaign shows that Ma's strategy is to be respectful to Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), criticize Chen and ignore [DPP mayoral candidate] Lee Ying-yuan (李應元)," senior political observer Hu Wen-hui (胡文輝) said.
"And for the sake of retaking the capital for the DPP, President Chen joined the campaign earlier than scheduled and launched fierce attacks on Ma during his stumps for the DPP's Lee. This has made an impression of the duel between Ma and A-bian on the electorate," Hu said.
"Once the Bian-Ma duel becomes the mainstream discourse in the media, people will pin their hopes for national leadership on these two political stars and thereby push for a generational change in Taiwan's political parties. Fifty-something politicians will dominate the political stage, while those over 60 will have to step down or play a role behind the scenes," Hu said.
Hu pointed out that the political trends are quite clear -- within the KMT, the party is focusing more on Ma.
As Lien Chan has proved to be an unattractive product in the electoral market and the party's reforms have gone nowhere over the past two years, the KMT's future is solely dependent on Ma. Hence, the party elite and members under 50 have been cozying up to him.
"Party elders know all too well that they won't be able to win the next presidential election with chairman Lien Chan alone. Cooperation with James Soong would mean the annexation of the party by the PFP," Hu said. "And party leaders such as Wu Po-hsiung (
Chin Heng-wei (
"The fact that pan-blue politicians have jumped on Ma's bandwagon one after the other forced Soong to take the stage early, raising his voice in lashing out at President Chen, lest he should be eliminated in this round of political competition in the media," Chin said.
Chin added that Soong's recent passionate comments were an indication of his anxiety. Soong's public statement of being "willing to drop the bid for the presidency if President Chen honestly faces the `one China' question" is equivalent to a declaration of his presidential bid. Soong even resorted to personal attacks against the president on several occasions in order to boost his media exposure.
"Chen, commanding the strategic position as the president, could change his target at will. He can alternately attack Ma and Soong, has the control over initiatives and can sow discord in the pan-blue camp," Chin said.
"What worries Soong is that once his competitor in the pan-blue camp changes from Lien to Ma, his chances become slimmer," Chin added.
The key lies in Lien's inclination and the resistance of some senior party staff and close aides of Lien.
According to Chin, if Lien recognizes the fact that he stands no chance of winning and works with grassroots party members, Ma could become the pan-blue camp's presidential candidate.
Soong wouldn't be able to do anything to combat this move and would have no choice but to retreat from the frontline.
According to Lin Dong-tai (
This shows the level of discontent with the delay in party reforms within the KMT, Lin said.
"The KMT has a long tradition of respecting seniority and the consequence has been that the party is always in the hands of elders, making reforms difficult.
"Now, with the slogan justifying `subversion,' some KMT members obviously hope to cultivate and nurture an atmosphere of anti-seniority. It merits further observation whether this trend will gain steam after Ma wins his re-election," Lin said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the