Appearing for the first time at the headquarters of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday, outgoing independent lawmaker Lin Jih-jia (
Lin, who was expelled from the KMT in early November after he registered to run in the Dec. 1 election as an independent, failed in his bid to retain his seat representing Taipei County's first district.
"[My joining the TSU] is a natural progression because the party and I share identical political beliefs. I am very willing to devote myself to the party to help it to implement its localization and democratization principles," Lin told the media before attending a speech by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the party's spiritual leader.
Dubbed the headmaster of the Lee Teng-hui school, the former KMT chairman gave a speech to the 41 nominees from the TSU to run in the January elections of the city and county governments.
Lin added that in the near future "there will be many friends from the KMT coming to join the TSU," but to minimize the political impact, they will first join the Taiwan Advocates (群策會) -- a cross-party think tank chaired by Lee.
Lin declined to comment if his joining the TSU indicated that the KMT was against localization.
"Whether the KMT has stuck to the localization path should be judged by public opinion. I am not in a position to comment," Lin said.
Having accepted the TSU's invitation last week, Lin will concurrently serve as the TSU's deputy secretary-general and the party's legislative office director.
The reason why the TSU approached Lin is because that as a veteran lawmaker, Lin will help alleviate worries over the lack of experience among the TSU's freshmen lawmakers, according to TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文).
Lin said he would organize the TSU legislators into an "efficient combative lawmaking body."
Commenting on Lin's becoming a disciple of the Lee Teng-hui school, Lee appeared very happy and said "there would be many more to come."
While talking to the group of TSU nominees for the upcoming local governments elections, Lee pointed out the significance of sharing political ideologies to form a true democracy.
Refraining from naming "the KMT," Lee reminded the attending candidates that the reason a "certain party" was routed in the elections was because "they were contradicting the public will, and could not proffer ideals acceptable to the grassroots."
In the face of the upcoming local elections, former president Lee said he was worried about violence and vote-buying problems, which always occur in local elections.
To curb these problems, Lee proposed to terminate the election for the township chiefs, and have them appointed by the county government.
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