In a bid to improve the KMT's showing in the year-end election and avoid further alienating the large number of voters who like former president Lee Teng-hui (
Talk about shutting the barn door after the horses have escaped. It was the KMT that threw Lee out, that totally betrayed his "Taiwanization path." While it is true that in politics, there are neither everlasting friends nor foes, one still cannot help feeling disgusted about the length the KMT will go to for votes.
The proposal to make overtures to Lee has triggered disputes within the KMT, since the suggestion is something the hardline mainlander factions can't condone. It could even lead to a further split within the party, or make more members decide it is time to turn in their KMT cards. The divide within the party between different ethnic groups and advocates of different policy paths is growing too wide to be bridged.
The reorganization of the KMT after its defeat in the 2000 presidential election put Lien Chan (
Although the pan-blue camp organized by the KMT and the PFP cruised to victory in last December's local elections, there is no guarantee that it will be able to duplicate the feat in the Taipei City and Kaohsiung City mayoral elections this year. At present, the KMT and the PFP are barely maintaining the formality of an alliance. It is hard to imagine they will be able keep up the partnership in the long run.
Under the circumstances, anyone within the KMT advocating "honoring Lee" is running on fear. If the KMT loses the year-end elections, then its hope of regaining the presidency in 2004 will become even slimmer. If the KMT leadership thinks that the voters are too stupid to see through an "honoring Lee" ploy, then they are grossly underestimating the political acumen of Taiwan's voters.
It may be that some within the KMT hope that an effort by the party to make amends with Lee might also help create rifts between Lee and President Chen Shui-bian (
The truth of the matter is the KMT has decayed to the point that it can only think of the short term, of surviving the next round in the ring. It can't even begin to think about long-term policies. But each step it has taken in the last year or so has been away from mainstream opinion, away from political aspirations of the people of Taiwan and closer to its disintegration.
Everyone in Taiwan knows those who stay in the KMT are there not because they want to help the nation's democracy advance, but because they want access to the party's enormous assets and political resources. People know only too well how many of party members are truly loyal to the KMT's political ideals or committed to grassroots democracy.
Whether or not the KMT honors Lee isn't important. What matters is whether it will again honor Lee's localization path. If Lien continues to indulge himself with nostalgia for the KMT's past glories and power, the party will simply fade away.
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