KMT Vice Chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday reacted angrily to a recent comment by DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) in which Wu insinuated that Siew has no political influence at all.
Siew said Wu's remark was a serious insult and he would not bother to conceal how much he detests Wu.
Over the past one-and-a-half years, Siew said, it was the DPP that was begging for his favor -- and he himself had never asked the DPP for anything.
Siew was apparently referring to President Chen Shui-bian's (
Siew last week proposed that the KMT should assist the DPP in improving the country's economy, despite the KMT's decision not to ally with the DPP.
Wu made the controversial remark on Thursday when he was asked by reporters as to whether the DPP would cooperate with Siew to attract individual politicians to join the "cross-party alliance for national stabilization," after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The DPP secretary-general said the answer to this question depends on Siew's "resourcefulness."
Wu said he doubted if Siew has the ability to influence anyone in the KMT, now that he no longer holds any position in the government.
According to Wu, most of the KMT officials were bureaucrats who lose their influence as soon as they step down from their official positions.
The only KMT politician who is still influential in the legislature is speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Siew, a former premier, said he does not know Wu personally, but said he has heard that Wu follows a very machiavellian style of politics.
Siew said Wu had addressed the question as if he were a person who, despite his inability, was coveting a position in the DPP government. He added that he had worked for the government for over 40 years and had done much for the country and the people.
He said that all the opinions which he had expressed after leaving the government are out of concern for the economic development of Taiwan.
RSS