Lee brands his successor as `pathetic'

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) continued his verbal assault against ex-colleagues yesterday, calling his hand-picked successor "pathetic."

Lee said KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has behaved like a "bad loser" since losing last year's presidential election, and also described him as "pathetic" as a PhD in political science.

Though Lee never identified Lien by name -- a custom in Taiwan when it comes to criticizing political opponents -- it was clear to whom the former president was referring.

"This one, who I prefer not to name but you all know, refuses to accept the results of the presidential election," Lee said yesterday during a campaign rally for a Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) candidate in Yulin County.

Lee also took issue with a failed, KMT-backed recall motion to oust President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), which had taken place just six months after Chen was inaugurated.

Despite his political science credentials, Lee said, Lien "is pathetic, really pathetic!"

After Chen opposed a proposal to allow the KMT -- the biggest party in the legislature -- to form the Cabinet, Lien repeatedly criticized the president for purposely ignoring "political science theory." Lien also complained loudly that with his PhD in political science, he could never understand why Chen refused to yield to the KMT.

Lee, who led the KMT as its chairman and Taiwan as its president for 12 years, was kicked out of the party on Sept. 21 for his harsh observations of the party under the leadership of Lien.

In particular, Lee is upset that the party has strayed from the pro-Taiwan path he forged during his time in office.

"That one, who prides himself for holding a PhD in political science, lacks awareness of what's fundamental to democracy's cultivation," Lee said. "How can I still get along with such a person, who has become the main cause of the current political chaos?"

During two days of campaigning for the TSU in central Taiwan this weekend, Lee took shots at several KMT heavyweights, including Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). On Saturday, Lee described Ma as "all talk, no action."

During a stop in Chiayi yesterday, Lee said he was happy to have been kicked out of the KMT and called attention to China's reaction to the decision.

"The interesting thing is that Beijing television broadcast the information, `Lee, this bad guy, has finally been expelled from the KMT,' almost at the same time that the party announced its decision," he said. "[Beijing and the KMT] must be colluding."

Lee also said that Taiwan should never again be ruled by an "alien regime," and said he would continue fighting to ensure political stability in Taiwan.

"I spent decades staying with those bastards, who forced my good friend Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), now a senior advisor to the president, into exile overseas because he wrote an `independence declaration,'" Lee said.