In a bid to bolster a weakened KMT after its crushing defeat in the presidential election, dozens of academics affiliated with the party issued a statement yesterday urging James Soong
At a news conference held yesterday by senior KMT-affiliated university professors, the academics said they were disappointed with the KMT's "incredible failure" in Saturday's polls that ended the party's 54-year grip on power.
"We sincerely call on Soong to rejoin the party, because we don't want to see the DPP monopolize power, with two smaller parties, the KMT and Soong's new party, neutralizing each other," said Chang Ya-yun
"Forming a new party is both unrealistic and irresponsible. We have to reintegrate the KMT, because the party has to be a powerful opposition party and monitor the ruling DPP," Chang said.
Chang added that the the KMT should not simply vanish.
"Soong was a KMT member for decades and he should remain loyal to the party. He cannot become a traitor," said James Yang (
He said the KMT would be in a stronger position to stand up to the DPP if Soong returned to the KMT, rather than form a new party, as he has announced he would do.
Those attending the news conference also urged KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to step down today -- as he is expected to do -- and allow Lien Chan (
"Lee Teng-hui should resign and take responsibility for his mistaken policy-making, which caused the party's failure in the election," James Yang said.
Lien garnered just 23 percent of the vote, trailing a distant third behind Soong, who won 37 percent.
"The DPP's victory doesn't mean that all the current problems caused by `black gold' politics will be solved entirely."
'The `sunshine laws' (currently under legislative review) need cooperation between the DPP and KMT if they are to go through," Yang said.
He added that the party should strengthen itself by welcoming former members who left during the election.
A statement issued by the academics called for the new party chair to be elected in a direct vote by all KMT members.
"Why are KMT members abandoning the party? Because the party lacks a democratic mechanism," Yang said.
He said important party decisions were traditionally made by the chairman and that this had created a gap between high level leaders and the rank and file.
"Meetings held by the KMT Central Standing Committee consist of one person laying down the law. There's no democracy at all in the party," Yang said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
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