Lien-Soong ticket meets with dissent

The proposal for a joint KMT-PFP ticket for next year's presidential election featuring the parties' chairmen got a chilly reception from KMT heavyweights and pro-localization party legislators yesterday.

The KMT members said that, rather than the proposed pairing of their chairman Lien Chan (連戰) with arch rival James Soong (宋楚瑜) from the PFP, the KMT might do better to field an all-KMT ticket featuring a younger political star such as Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The KMT members stressed that elections campaigns were not about paying deference to party seniority or leaders ambitions but about winning power and the party should field the most effective ticket to bring this about.

"The goal here is not to run on a ticket but to win an electoral victory," said KMT Vice Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄). "While a defeat is predictable if KMT Chairman Lien and PFP Chairman James Soong run on separate tickets in the 2004 presidential race, it however does not necessarily mean that an electoral win will be guaranteed if both Lien and Soong run on the same ticket."

Lien and Soong last month had pledged to field a joint ticket for the 2004 presidential election. However, debate over who will head the ticket and who will serve as the running mate has been a thorny issue in talks about inter-party cooperation.

Calling on both Lien and Soong to grasp an understanding what it really means "to let go," Wu said that the issue to consider was whether there is any combination of candidates other than Lien and Soong which might have a greater chance of winning.

"After all," added Wu, "both Lien and Soong did say that neither one of them thinks that each one alone is the only choice for the presidential position."

Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) yesterday said: "If Lien and Soong can't reach a settlement over who will head the ticket soon, then both of them might just as well not run in the election at all."

Hu also encouraged Ma to seek the higher position he deserves.

Pro-localization KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyong (徐中雄) said that if debate continues to drag on over who will be the presidential candidate and who the running mate, the so-called KMT-PFP partnership will be heading for electoral defeat, since it will waste too much time that would better be devoted to campaign strategy.

Shyu also said that prolonged negotiation over the ticket might disgust voters who would see it as little more than an unedifying divvying up of the spoils of office.

KMT Legislator Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌) suggested Ma Ying-jeou team up with legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to run next year if the Lien-Soong ticket can't be finalized soon.

When asked by media to comment on Chen's suggestion, Wang said "it's a joke, don't take it too seriously," while Ma restated his support for a Lien-Soong ticket and stressed the importance of KMT-PFP cooperation if the pan-blue alliance wished to win the election.