Amid the brouhaha over the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) selection of its presidential candidate, much criticism has been leveled against KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) over his indecisiveness and flip-flops, as well as against Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) over her unilateral pronouncements on cross-strait relations and other abrasive remarks that critics said contributed to her own downfall, resulting in her nomination as the party’s presidential candidate being revoked by the KMT’s Central Standing Committee yesterday.
While Chu has been jeered by political watchers as the weakest KMT chairman ever and Hung has been branded the weakest KMT presidential candidate ever, there has been one other person who ought to be held ultimately responsible for the party’s state of disarray: none other than President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Hung, as well as any other candidate the party is posed to recruit to fill her place, would not be facing such an uphill battle if it was not for Ma’s poor governance over the past seven years and seven months.
Because of Ma’s dismal performance in his two-term presidency, he has burdened the party with a negative public perception and, in part, contributed to Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) dominance in the polls.
Since Ma assumed office in May 2008, all he has brought the public are rising consumer prices, soaring housing prices, a deteriorating labor market and weakening household incomes.
Ministry of Finance data showed that exports dropped 14.6 percent to US$22.54 billion last month, falling for the eighth consecutive month. It was also the lowest monthly figure since October 2010 and the fourth consecutive month of double-digit declines. Given deteriorating exports and lower-than-expected third-quarter GDP growth, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) earlier this month said that it would be difficult for the economy to grow more than 1 percent this year.
These are just a few of the numbers that illustrate how Ma’s incompetent administration has weakened the nation’s competitiveness, not to mention other issues deemed by the public as the government’s failure to address social justice issues that affect people’s livelihoods and democratic development.
Then, there is Ma’s ego and calculations that have allegedly kept Chu’s hands tied in his role as party chairman.
Polls conducted by media outlets show that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is rated as the most likeable KMT politician and has the highest approval rating among potential KMT presidential candidates.
These results fueled speculation that Chu from the very beginning had favored Wang to run for the top job, but sources said that Chu had to give up his favorite because Ma objected.
Although the Presidential Office on Tuesday dismissed a news report that said Ma gave Chu instructions to block Wang from running for president, Ma’s dislike of the legislative speaker is an open secret. It is evident by the “September strife” in 2013 — when Ma accused Wang of being involved in illegal lobbying of the judiciary and tried unsuccessfully to revoke Wang’s KMT membership and invalidate his status as a KMT legislator-at-large and as legislative speaker.
In short, the KMT has Ma to blame as the ultimate source of the party’s state of disarray.
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