KMT committee director abandons post

Chao Shou-po (趙守博) stepped down from his position as director of the KMT's Organization and Development Committee yesterday because of the party's failure in the legislative elections.

Chao admitted that the party's reliance on local political factions and its old-fashioned campaign methods were the major reasons behind the defeat.

Chao said the party must abandon a campaign culture that mainly relies on vote captains (樁腳) and vote-buying in future elections.

Chao cited a famous quote by former US president John F. Kennedy -- "success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan" -- to urge his colleagues to conduct a thorough review on the party's failure and reform itself.

"As far as our voting mobilization is concerned, we must resolve to release ourselves from the enslavement of local political factions," Chao said.

With factional backgrounds being the major consideration in the nomination of the party's candidates, the party obviously had over-estimated the possible influence of political factions, Chao pointed out.

"In some places, local political factions even led party operation by the nose," Chao said.

Because of the dependence on traditional vote captains and vote-buying politics, some candidates were virtually stranded following the DPP government's continual crackdown on vote buying, according to Chao.

The KMT's inefficient personnel system is another problem that the party needs to tackle, Chao said.

The present system is too inflexible and subject to too many restrictions, and party workers are similar to civil servants, Chao noted.

"Elections are like fighting a battle, they require mobility. How are we going to go to battle when we are completely tied up?" he asked.

He proposed that the party adopt a manager system in the future and sign contracts with party workers to lessen its personnel burden.

"Those who perform well would have their contracts renewed. Those who perform poorly, I'm sorry, would have to leave," Chao said.

Chao urged the party to be well prepared for the elections for chief of rural and urban townships set for late January, as he said the DPP is likely to take advantage of its victory in the legislative elections.

Also, the party should reform itself to cope with possible future changes in the country's electoral system, in which a "single-member district, two-vote system" is likely to be adopted, Chao said.

As the new system would involve voting for of both candidates and political parties, Chao said that the party must position itself clearly and follow a specific platform to show the electorate what the party represents.

The fact that the KMT has urged the electorate to "vote for the person, not the party" indicates that the party lacked confidence in itself, Chao said.

Agreeing with Chao, KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) said the KMT used to be most confident in its grassroots organization and mobilization, but the outcome of the elections showed that the party was unable to mobilize voters despite the existence of the organization.

In the final stage of the campaign, the party failed to make an accurate judgement and adjust its campaign strategy properly. This was a fatal blow, Lin said.

The party needs to boost its appeal to women, young people and laborers, he added.

Chao's successor, James Chen (陳健治), said his top priority after taking over the position will be to boost the morale of party workers to get ready for next month's elections.