Vowing to continue reform efforts so the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will win the 2008 presidential election, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took over the helm of the party yesterday, while his supporters pushed through proposals to reform the KMT's power structure.
Accepting the party's flag from predecessor Lien Chan (
"Today's society depends on the KMT to monitor the government as a strong opposition party and to maintain peaceful cross-strait relations," Ma said in his inauguration speech to the 1,600 delegates gathered at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
PHOTO: FANG PING-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"It is the KMT's mission and my challenge to transform the party into a clean and decent party," he said.
Ma outlined seven reform goals in his speech, including cleaning up the party's asset problems by 2008, pushing for pan-blue unity, expanding the party's base and grassroots connections, and deepening democracy within the party.
Ma praised Lien for the contributions he made to the party as chairman, including allowing a direct election for his successor, and for working to improve cross-strait relations.
He also thanked Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) for running "a gentlemen's race" in the KMT chairmanship election last month.
In his farewell address, Lien thanked party members for their support during his five-year tenure, during which he said he was devoted to reviving the party's soul and spirit. He encouraged his fellow cadres to rejuvenate and reform the party.
"Our popularity among the public had risen to more than 60 percent in a recent survey. I urge all of you to keep the torch passed down by Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), offer voters a different choice, and hopefully win back power in 2008," Lien said.
Many of the delegates, including Lien's son Lien Sheng-wen (
The KMT's "Chairman Ma era" got underway yesterday afternoon when the delegates passed a proposal to allow them to directly elect the party's 31 Central Standing Committee (CSC) members. The motion was carried by more than 856 delegates. The CSC vote will be held today.
The delegates also gave their approval to Ma's nominees for four vice-chairperson posts: incumbents Taichung Mayor Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), as well as Lin Cheng-chi (林澄枝) and John Kuan (關中). A total of 952 delegates raised their hands to support the appointments.
A proposal to amend the KMT's constitution to extend the terms of CSC members from one year to two was rejected. Other constitutional amendments that passed included abolishing an article which stipulates that members who are disciplined or expelled cannot be candidates for the Central Standing Committee or party chairman.
The article is generally considered to be aimed at People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who was expelled by the KMT for running as an independent against Lien in the 2000 presidential election. The amendment was designed to help push for integration of the pan-blue alliance.
As most of the motions put forward by Ma's supporters were passed -- the direct election of CSC members and keeping CSC tenure at one year -- it is believed that the Taipei mayor has enhanced his power within the party.
Today the delegates will elect the 210 members of the party's Central Committee and then elect the 31 CSC members from among those 210 people.
Meanwhile, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent a congratulatory message Ma yesterday, according to a Beijing-based Xinhuanet report.
The message expressed hope that both sides will also oppose Taiwan independence to safeguard peace in the Strait and create a win-win situation for both sides across the Strait.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the CCP's secretary-general, also sent a message to Lien to congratulate him for serving as the KMT's honorary chairman, the report said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant