The new pro-Taiwan political group being organized by former minister of the interior Huang Chu-wen (
The KMT has slammed the group as pro-independence.
The party is being formed in seemingly fertile political soil. Thousands of people and some pro-independence groups showed up at CKS International Airport to greet former president Lee Teng-hui (
Even the DPP has become worried about the possible loss of votes and has criticized the group.
The KMT expressed its criticism at the party's Central Standing Committee meeting last Wednesday. It attacked the group for appealing to Taiwanese independence feelings and ethnic divisions.
DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) also questioned the group's "inconsistency in words and deeds," "thinking about nothing but trading for a maximum [number of] seats at minimum cost. ... The political group will have a greater impact on the DPP than on the KMT," Wu said.
The Northern Taiwan Society (
Chen I-shen (陳儀深), a society member and associate research fellow at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, argues that society must keep a "safe distance" from the political group until it proves itself able to construct a fair and democratic nomination mechanism and find its place on the unification-versus-independence spectrum.
"Huang Chu-wen must provide answers to questions pertaining to how the new political group is to distance itself from extreme ideologies and whether they can manage an issue -- and public policy-oriented election campaigns -- otherwise the year-end election will be a mess," Chen said.
Lee himself was actually alarmed by the fervor of his supporters at the airport. Meeting with Huang the next day, Lee reminded him to "carefully evaluate the sources of votes for the political group, KMT and DPP, and make an appropriate separation."
Given the public's discontent with the present political situation, the formation of the new political group is definitely a positive move that will provide voters with more options, according to Lee's close aides. Huang predicts that the turnout for December's legislative elections will increase at least 10 percent compared to last time.
On a tactical level, the new political group's leadership will be composed mainly of fresh faces from the ranks of the academic world and influential grassroots politicians.
The "Lee Teng-hui effect" is also bound to help expand the voter base at the local level, winning over voters from DPP spin-offs such as the Taiwan Independence Party and the New Nation Alliance (新國家陣線), and an even larger number of grassroots KMT supporters.
Moreover, the aides pointed out that the People First Party (PFP) was waiting to absorb those who failed to win nominations in the KMT and DPP primaries and to siphon off undecided voters (among the pro-Taiwan supporters) when people finally feel they have had enough of KMT-DPP power struggles. However, the formation of the new political group has upset the PFP's strategy. And for the KMT, the loss of its grassroots support will intensify its internal struggles and expose the party leadership's problem of being too far removed from public opinion.
Still, to say that the new group wants to steal the PFP's votes "is an utter lie," said Wu Nai-jen. "From the affiliation of Lee's supporters at the airport one can tell that it is the DPP's votes that the new political group will siphon off, and the pro-independence vote is the easiest part."
As for the group's development direction and campaign strategy, the former minister reiterated that the group would not participate in local elections, such as city or county council or mayoral elections. It has one single goal: To become a stabilizing force in the Legislative Yuan.
"The group will complete its party charter and guidelines by the end of July and register at the interior ministry officially to be a political party," Huang stressed. "The political group will nominate around 40 to 50 candidates and publicize the complete name list by the end of August," he added.
Furthermore, when it comes to the questions of forming a political party and campaign funding, a senior official made it clear that the fund-raising is not easy now that the China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工業銀行) is no longer a party-owned business, but rather a private one. Therefore, the group will not turn to the bank's chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) for money.
However, "a number of local businessmen, who are concerned about the political disarray, extended their support a long time ago, so the political group will not have funding problems," according to the official.
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