While the KMT has made numerous attempts recently to call back some of its wayward members, heavyweights in the party suggested yesterday that the KMT may be heading towards its third split before the legislative elections at the end of this year.
"Owing to the ambiguous direction of the KMT's central leadership, the separation of the party will begin when the next Legislative Yuan session begins in February," KMT legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (
Hsu said that the party's central leadership still does not accept the result of losing the presidential election and has refused to implement party reform.
"It's obvious that the key members of our party's central headquarters are only interested in accusing others rather than taking responsibility for losing the election. They don't want to use the party's resources to reform the party's structure," Hsu said.
The KMT's first major split was in 1993 when members of the party opposed to then KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (
Just before last year's presidential election, the campaign of James Soong (
After the election Soong founded the People First Party.
The KMT is currently involved in a signature drive to encourage all party members to re-register, but the effort has nearly fallen flat on its face.
Currently over 850,000 members have come back to re-register with the party.
Initially the KMT had hoped that its signature drive would bring back all of its claimed 2.5 million members.
Part of the problem is that since last year's presidential election, the KMT's central leadership has invited more old members to return to the party, especially those who left the party because of political fights with former KMT chairman Lee, Hsu added.
"The reason why the KMT lost power is `black gold,' but the new KMT leaders seem only to attribute failure to Lee's improper leadership," Hsu said.
Former president of the Control Yuan Chen Li-an (
The party has also tried to persuade former premier Hau Po-tsun (
DPP faction leaders also said that the KMT has done little to attract the young to join the party or to release party power to younger politicians.
"KMT leaders have put all their efforts into backing `elder members' and, at the same time, new chairman Lien Chan (連戰) lacks direction and charisma to lead the party," DPP New Tide faction leader Hung Chi-chung (洪奇昌) said.
Political analysts say that the KMT is now eradicating "Lee Teng-hui's line," which has been termed "localization" (
"Lee changed the KMT's constitution during his 12-year leadership to promote more ethnic Taiwanese as party leaders and his efforts led to the party's two splits," said editor in chief of Contemporary magazine Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒). "Ironically Lee's followers in the party will become the members of a third splinter group"
Last week six KMT legislators, all ethnic Taiwanese, decided to leave the KMT legislative caucus in the next session.
The KMT, which currently holds 115 of the total 225 seats in Legislative Yuan, will not maintain a majority after they lose these lawmakers.
Hsu also stressed that some other KMT factions might break off from the party before the legislative elections, if the party's central leaders insist on going back in the old direction and remain ambiguous about reform.
"The new mechanism for directly electing the party chairman in March will be indicative. We will see whether the party really wants to introduce a democratic procedure or whether the vote is just another farce to cheat people," Hsu said.
Speaking with some retired veterans in Changhua County yesterday KMT Chairman Lien said that those who criticized the KMT for losing its direction were "not doing their homework" before they made their criticisms.
"We have revealed solid policy platforms in a wide range of different issues but did they really read any of our policies?" Lien asked.
"That we have invited those elders to come back to the party does not mean that the KMT is only a party for the elderly. Over 40 percent of our newly re-registered members are younger than 40," Lien added.
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