Reform of DPP structure urged

DPP heavyweights said yesterday that the party should institute reforms by adding more publicly-elected representatives to its power center to narrow the differences of opinion between the party and the new government.

"The DPP is now the ruling party, but the premier and some ministers are [still] KMT members," said Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who was President-elect Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign executive manager.

"Therefore, we need to create unobstructed channels between the new government, the president, and the DPP."

Due to increasingly disparate interpretations between the DPP and the incoming government regarding a number of important issues, Chiou appealed to DPP leaders to accomplish badly-needed reforms to the party's structure at the National Party Congress, scheduled for this coming July.

"The party's central leadership must have electoral support so that its leaders can reflect the voice of the party's grassroots level," Chiou said.

Chiou proposed reorganizing the make-up of the Central Standing Committee according to what he called a "5-4-3-2-1" principle.

"The number of committee members should be upped to 15 from the current 11," Chiou said. "[The committee] will consist of members from the legislative caucus (5 legislators), local government chiefs (4 county commissioners or city mayors), the cabinet (3 ministers), Taipei City and Kaohsiung City representatives (2) and the party chairman (1), who should be elected directly by all party members," Chiou added.

DPP Organizational and Development Department director Jimmy Kuo (郭俊銘) said people have already seen arguments between DPP leaders and Premier-designate Tang Fei (唐飛), as well as between Tang and Chen. One obvious example is the ongoing controversy over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

"The party's Central Standing Committee must become a negotiating center that can reflect all the major differences in opinion between local administrations, the Cabinet, the legislative caucus and DPP faction leaders," Chiou stressed.

Other DPP leaders, however, disapproved of Chiou's proposal, saying most party faction leaders were already actively preparing to run for positions on the Central Standing Committee.

"I think the party chairman should also be a legislator. All policies can then be made by the party's legislative caucus," said Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), DPP Justice Alliance faction leader. "The Central Standing Committee can become a campaign mechanism."

Kuo also indicated that the party reform proposal has been discussed before at previous national party Congresses, but that they had all failed to pass.

"Party faction leaders just considered their own interests. Chiou was the party's former secretary-general, so I think he realizes the problem," Kuo said.

However, Chiou was still confident about the proposal. "If party Chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) promises to run for re-election, we will start negotiations among all party faction leaders to support the reform mission," said Chiou.