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KMT faces lack of good choices for president

Heated rhetoric and finger-pointing among the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) four presidential competitors have caused party leaders to fear potential disunity, but such disagreements are the price that any democratic party must pay.

On the other hand, the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) attempt to prevent a possible presidential candidate -- Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) -- from competing against former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the party's primary reflects the party's lack of democratic spirit and open-mindedness.

The rivalry between Ma and Wang can be traced to the party's first competitive chairmanship election two years ago. Ma was easily elected, with the pan-blue camp treating him as the "chosen one" who could return the party to the president's office in next year's election.

Ma could have helped Wang save face by leaving space for future cooperation during the campaign. However, Ma's implicit labeling of Wang as associated with "black-gold politics" eliminated any possibility of reconciliation between the two.

Ma's popularity reached a peak as a series of so-called scandals hit President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the DPP.

But if there is one specific lesson that all politicians should learn, it would be that gloating always backfires.

When the president's "state affairs fund" case was dominating the headlines, nobody in the KMT ever imagined that Ma would be caught up in his own corruption allegations.

Faced with the most severe crisis of his political career, Ma had no choice but to resign his chairmanship. However, the indictment in the special allowance fund corruption scandal did not prevent him from announcing a presidential bid.

Ma's dual moves were aimed at preventing any internal challenge to his popularity while at the same time seeking to play the "sympathy card" to rally the pan-blue camp behind him.

The KMT's next step was to ensure Ma's continuing influence in the party by supporting former KMT vice chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) as the new chairman. Wu's succession meant that the party's nomination process for the upcoming elections would continue unchanged.

Ma's camp blocked every chance Wang had to be nominated as the KMT's presidential candidate and minimized the speaker's influence in the party's decision-making circle.

Ma's aggressive maneuvering to secure exclusive leadership has caused serious challenges for the KMT.

First, his status as the party's "trump card" can no longer be taken for granted, mainly because a conviction in the special allowance fund case would cause many voters to look for other choices. If Ma's popularity continues to drop, the KMT will have no alternative candidate to compete with the DPP.

Second, the "black-gold exclusion" clause was introduced under Ma's chairmanship to suspend the party membership of those indicted for a crime. Now that Ma has been indicted, the KMT is squirming between its desire for reform and its desire for its "chosen one" to reach office.

Third, even if he is proven guilty in a trial before the KMT's primary, Ma has said that he would campaign as an independent candidate. In that case, the KMT would likely still support him. This would mark a return to the party's authoritarian days, during which only the party's leaders were able to designate candidates.

No matter what the KMT decides to do about its presidential candidate in the future, the public has learned that the party's selection process is not at all democratic, putting the KMT at odds with the expectations of most Taiwanese.

Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
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