The second anniversary of the establishment of the Taiwan Solidarity Union passed in less than festive mood yesterday with the party rent by internal bickering.
The squabbles result from accusations by lawmaker Su Yin-kuei (
Su was expelled from the TSU on Monday after the party's Central Executive Committee deemed the evidence Su provided was too weak to justify his accusations against Lo. Furthermore, judicial authorities also initially ruled out Lo's involvement in any misdeeds.
Su has, however, decided to file a lawsuit against Lo tomorrow for defaming him in accusing him of taking neighborhood development funds (
Su has pledged to resign from the legislature if he is found to have taken inappropriate subsidies from state-run businesses.
In retaliation, some party lawmakers who supported Su's expulsion, including the TSU's legislative caucus whip Chien Lin Whei-jun (
Meanwhile, other TSU lawmakers were also getting the documents ready to accuse Su of spending more than NT$1 million of public money on his overseas business trips, an amount which tops all other lawmakers' travel expenses.
To solve the dispute, TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (
The internal squabbling prompted the party to cancel the celebration of its second anniversary for fear that Su's supporters would organize a protest that would mar the celebration.
The TSU, the brainchild of former President Lee Teng-hui (
Since then, however, there has been a good deal of intra-party feuding that could only be resolved by the mediation of Lee or Huang.
To quash doubts over a possible split in the party, Huang has loudly proclaimed the goal of winning 30 legislative seats in the elections next year. The party, he said, will stick to the "Lee Teng-hui path" promoting Taiwan independence to counter China's unification attempts.
In related news, former President Lee has had to cancel all scheduled activities as a result of exhaustion.
Hwang Kun-hu (
Lee was scheduled to deliver a speech today at the closing ceremony of a youth training camp held by Chang-jung University in Tainan.
The speech has, however, been canceled due to Lee's unsound physical condition.
It is the first time in four years that Lee has failed to attend this regular summer activity.
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