If you want to understand the underlying implications of a piece of news or an incident, comparison is essential. Here is an example: In one event, Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中), expelled former deputy director of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee, has revealed that the KMT will use an incident involving self-proclaimed citizen reporter Hung Su-chu (洪素珠) to initiate a political struggle; while in another, former first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) attended an activity on Ketagalan Boulevard for retired soldiers aged 50 or older. The main point is that both events mobilized KMT loyalists — either second-generation soldiers or retired soldiers and their families.
Is Yang’s insider information correct? KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) immediately said that “it was on my orders.”
Tsai added that “similar serious prejudice has been on display locally in the past” and did not deny that the party’s central leadership ordered caucuses in city and county councils to initiate a general investigation.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) criticized Tsai, saying that the KMT had gone crazy.
Has Tsai lost his mind? No. He is using Hung and Chow’s support of veterans to play the ethnic and unification-independence cards to help lay the groundwork for the KMT leadership election next year, when support from veterans and their families will be crucial.
The KMT only has two things in its favor: its party assets and the 35 seats it holds in the legislature.
The party’s situation is almost pitiable.
Once the “illicit party assets” bill is passed, its assets have been returned, the party’s spirit has evaporated and the core of the KMT is gone, what will it do? It has been a while since the party’s legislative caucus listened to its leadership and although Tsai has an impressive-sounding title, it is not worth much: When he visited the legislative caucus, he was rudely shouted down from the podium.
Even when the party caucus elected its whip and deputy whip, it exercised its autonomy and thoroughly severed its connection to the central leadership: KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) can no longer control the legislative caucus.
All that remains of the defeated KMT is an empty shell that is close to bankruptcy and Tsai holds an empty position in it.
This also explains why he is mobilizing local government councils rather than the party’s legislative caucus.
The next act in this play will be to see if the local council caucuses will listen to the central party leadership.
All that the public has to do is sit back and enjoy the show.
Then there is Chow’s “troop inspection,” when 500 veterans in their 50s — cheered on by family members young and old shouting: “Long live the ROC, down with Taiwanese independence” and other slogans — marched down Ketagalan Boulevard. Interestingly, Chow sat through the whole show.
Frankly speaking, there is not much left of the KMT’s power base — military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers — as support from civil servants and teachers seems to have evaporated. The party is moving ever closer to a situation in which it lacks both money and supporters, with the exception of old soldiers.
Retaining that support will not necessarily save the party, but losing it would mean certain death: Whoever manages to awaken the passion among the old soldiers will have a good chance at reigning victorious in the chairmanship election.
Few people think that the KMT will get another shot at running the nation, while its number of legislative seats is likely to shrink with every election. It seems clear that the KMT lacks the ambition to engineer a comeback. The party’s central leadership is not worth much, but it has now become the final platform for the power of the “privileged Mainlanders.”
Hung is clearly incapable of holding up the party and Chow’s participation in the veterans’ event was not random. Will former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) make another run for the party chairmanship?
What the comparison of the KMT’s reaction to the Hung Su-chu event and Chow’s attendance at the veterans event shows is that the KMT has no more tricks in its bag except the ethnic card and military veterans.
Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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