The three main opposition parties may still be "a distance away" from forming a governing coalition, but they should start developing sound confidence-building measures and a cooperative mechanism, a senior KMT official said yesterday.
Chao Lin, a member of the KMT Organizational Affairs Development Committee, said at a seminar on the next steps for the opposition alliance that he is happy to see the three parties -- which share the same roots -- stop fighting each other politically.
He went on to say that the parties should form a solid front and work for the welfare of the people. As well, he said they should improve communication with each other and eliminate factional conflicts.
In addition to internal reform, he said that the KMT should also prepare to welcome the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party back into the KMT fold.
New Party legislator Levi Ying (
He added that if the KMT were to form a Cabinet, it would be helpful to national stability, but on the other hand, the NP's room for supervision would be narrowed.
A KMT Cabinet would still be better than a ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Cabinet, Ying continued, so the New Party will still support a KMT Cabinet and any move to form a coalition government.
Political analyst Sang Ping said that public opinion had swung from support for the opposition's plans to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to going against the notion, not because the people do not want to oust him, but rather because they want to avoid more social instability.
Between the two, the people will choose "the lesser of two evils," he added.
It is still necessary for the opposition alliance to be a source of pressure on Chen, Sang said.
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