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Letter:

Article close to the mark

Derek Lee's article on Taiwan's local factions ("Local factions peddle politics," Nov. 25, page 17) was well taken overall and very timely in describing the role of factions in buying votes, but it had some historical inaccuracies.

Most notably, Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) had left the KMT and was challenging it in the name of the democratic opposition for the elections of November 1977. The article makes it seem as though Hsu was one of the KMT's local faction leaders and an incumbent county head. But actually, he was a KMT representative in the provincial assembly before writing a book exposing corruption there.

My impression is that the split between local factions supporting the KMT and more educated cadres sent by KMT central did not become an issue in 1977; at that time local factions were still entirely subordinate and dependant.

The KMT continued to have a heavy hand in local factional politics until the mid-1990s, I think -- until some local candidates, for example in Tainan, became too unsavory to openly promote.

The connection remains, or vote buying would not still be rampant and in need of serious suppression efforts.

Finally, it should be noted that the illegitimate interests of local factions have often become legitimate-looking businesses and these have somewhat infiltrated the DPP, in the north and south.

This makes it difficult for the DPP to appear as virtuous as it would like.

Linda Gail Arrigo

International Affairs Officer

Green Party Taiwan

Taipei
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