People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday pledged to regain the party’s influence in the legislature as he announced 10 candidates that will represent the PFP in January’s legislative elections, while remaining vague about whether he would run for president.
Leading the 10 candidates in declaring the PFP’s determination to obtain at least three seats in the next legislature to form a caucus, Soong said the PFP aimed to push for a “quiet revolution” that would end bipartisan confrontation in the legislature and make the public’s needs the priority.
Former independent legislator Li Ao (李敖), who will represent the PFP in Taipei City’s Wenshan (文山)-Zhongzheng (中正) electoral district, joined Soong in challenging the partisan culture in the legislature, saying power struggles between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) paralyze it.
“There are too many bills lying on the legislative floor that haven’t been handled and it’s been unbearable that the KMT and the DPP have cheated us for so long ... This time I will collaborate with James Soong and the PFP in the election so that the PFP caucus can do something for the people,” Li said.
He also urged Soong to join the presidential election as a way to promote the party’s candidates in the legislative elections.
Soong, who has said in several interviews that he will either join the presidential or legislative races, did not announce his decision at the press conference, insisting that helping the PFP win seats in the legislature was more important.
“It takes people, money and other objective conditions to run for the presidency,” Soong said. “It’s better to end the negative reputation of our legislature for incompetence before discussing which position James Soong should be in.”
Comparing himself to former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) and former British prime minister Winston Churchill, who both went through ups and downs in their political careers, Soong urged supporters to give him more time to make a decision on the matter.
When asked whether he would meet with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Soong said that the KMT and PFP should exchange ideas via meetings between the parties’ secretaries-general and that a meeting with Ma was unnecessary.
Soong’s possible presidential bid has also been seen as a potential spoiler for Ma, who is facing a tight race against DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
At a separate setting yesterday, Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, said his party respected the PFP’s presentation of its own legislative candidates, but added that the KMT still hoped to work with the PFP on legislative nominations.
Presiding over the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, Ma said the KMT never intended to dissuade PFP candidates and that KMT-PFP cooperation remained the party’s goal.
Facing a split in the pan-blue camp, KMT Secretary-General Liao Liao-yi (廖了以) said the president was still willing to meet with Soong to discuss cooperation between the two parties and urged the PFP to consider the overall situation and meet its supporters’ expectations of a united pan-blue camp in the elections.
The PFP said it would release the names of more legislative nominees as it hopes to win at least 5 percent of the vote — the threshold for securing legislator-at-large seats — in the legislative elections.
The DPP, meanwhile, said it respected the PFP’s decision to take part in the elections as the right to political participation is protected by the Constitution.
The new development would not affect the DPP’s legislative campaign strategy and tempo, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
While most people see the division in the pan-blue camp as an opportunity and an advantage for the main opposition party, DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said that was not necessarily the case because the PFP would try to attract anti-Ma voters, which means the DPP could also end up losing votes.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHRIS WANG
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS