PFP's Hsu gives reasons for ditching party

Hsu: He phoned me a couple of times to offer an apology and asked me to stay at the PFP. He also asked me to stop criticizing the party. I am one of the few who were still around when he lost the presidential election last year. At that time, only former legislative speaker Liu Sung-pan (劉松藩) and I insisted on forming a party of our own while all the others, including Soong himself, preferred to rejoin the KMT. I told him that Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), then KMT chairman, would block his return. Liu threatened to quit politics if Soong failed to take his advice. Reluctantly, Soong agreed to form the PFP weeks later.

TT: How will you interact with the PFP in the future?

Hsu: It is impossible for me to attend PFP campaign rallies. As a small party, the PFP should have reaped benefits from the rivalry between the two main parties, the KMT and the DPP. Rather, the party has become the target of attack by the two. Even the tiny New Party has aimed its fire at the PFP. This shows that the PFP has adopted a losing strategy, mainly because the party is filled with members who have delusions of grandeur. They calculate that Soong's electoral backing can be 100 percent transferred to PFP candidates in the December polls. In my view, the PFP should refrain from the elections of county commissioners and city mayors, except in Miaoli, Taitung and possibly Nantou.

Soong should have volunteered to help KMT candidates in the other battlefields. Divided, the opposition camps stand no chance of beating their DPP rivals and opposition supporters may place the blame on Soong, dimming the prospect of his presidential bid in 2004.