DPP behaving like the KMT
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) certainly cannot serve concurrently as campaign manager of former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Taipei City mayoral candidate.
The DPP should not cite precedents set by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) then-secretary-general Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) or then-vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長). Why should the Taiwanese vote for the DPP if it acts like the KMT?
Do not forget that in May 2011, the media reported that the DPP caucus attacked then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for letting his re-election campaign team operate from the Presidential Office.
For example, in a report in the Liberty Times report [the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper] titled “Green camp demands Ma’s 10-member team return salary,” published on May 24, 2011, then-DPP caucus whip Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said it was unbelievable that the KMT would turn the nation’s leadership center into a mere campaign office.
Then-DPP legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) criticized Ma’s team for not caring after the story was exposed, and said that such behavior was a big issue.
Today, if the DPP also turns the nation’s leadership center into a campaign office, should the DPP caucus apologize to the public first?
Let us not forget that Su once swore at the Baoan Temple that he would not run for the mayoral seat a third time and broke his own vow by running. It seems the credibility of DPP politicians is not much better than that of Ma and his KMT gang.
The DPP should stop talking rubbish about the need to appoint Chen for the good of the party and the nation.
The party might be able to fool its die-hard supporters with such nonsense, but for voters in general, whether a candidate has “class” is closely related to whether they are able to attract votes.
If Su insists that Chen be his campaign manager, Chen should at least take a long leave of absence from the Presidential Office and then resume her post after the year-end election. Is this too much to ask?
Lee Cheng-che
New Taipei City
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