In the past, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians who were nominated for office never had to worry about whether they would be elected, but in the nine-in-one elections last month, KMT candidates even distanced themselves from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the party to protect themselves.
Still, the sons of both former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), whom the party call “honorary chairmen” and who have their own support networks, suffered “glorious defeats.” Lien’s son, Sean Lien, (連勝文) lost the Taipei mayoral election and Wu’s son, Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚), lost his bid for re-election. Taiwanese democracy is indeed changing.
Voters in this new era rejected the KMT’s deceit, manipulations, threats and bribes with the result that the party suffered debilitating defeats. Ma stepped down as party chairman, which was well-deserved. The problem here is that his likely successor, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) is — to use the language of US diplomatic communications — Ma’s confidant.
Chu was also a confidant of former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director Stephen Young and revealed a lot of inside information about Ma’s party-state to him. Past private comments do not imply that he has any particular vision about KMT reform; they only highlight the contradictions that continue to exist within the party.
According to Chu, Ma has a few unspoken autocratic rules: He believes that he needs only to inform Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) about developments in cross-strait affairs and does not need to do anything more to get cross-strait pacts passed. Wang is the leader of the party’s Taiwan-centered faction and is of the view that cross-strait affairs should be supervised by the legislature. If Ma does not change his contempt for the legislature, what will Chu be able to do about it?
Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) wanted to change tracks and join the central government, but Chu told Young that Ma did not think that local government leaders should be made part of the national government. This unwritten rule blocked not only Hu from joining the central government, but also other local leaders. The central government’s rule is that Ma will find his people by looking in the mirror.
If, as expected, Chu takes over the party next year, he will have to deal with the issue of Wang’s party membership. He calls Wang “an important party asset,” but he sold Wang out in his talks with Young and chose to go with Ma. He also urged Wang to support Ma, which makes it quite obvious that he picked the wrong guy.
Chu frankly admits that Ma does not like People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and that he does not listen to Lien Chan. Not listening to Lien Chan is not a big issue, but not listening to younger generations will lead to the party’s demise.
Ma’s KMT is corrupt and it leads to collusion between government and business, political elitism, an increasing wealth gap and younger generations without a future. This is not something that his confidant will be able to change by becoming KMT chairman and using local government leaders.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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