A s an atmosphere of shock and disappointment settled in at the KMT's campaign headquarters last night, Lien Chan (
Lien said he "felt sorry" for his supporters, because the embarrassing loss had disappointed those who had high expectations of him.
"After the defeat, I should deeply reflect [on] and self-examine [the causes]. It was my less-than-sufficient endeavors that led to the setback," the incumbent vice president said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Also shouldering blame for the KMT rout was KMT Secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (
On behalf of the party headquarters, Huang said he respected the Taiwanese people's decision and attributed the loss to a split KMT, adding that the party will speed up its pace of reform to win back the people's hearts.
During Lien's brief remarks, he offered conciliatory words to his erstwhile DPP rivals. "I would like to congratulate Chen Shui-bian (
He also spelled out his expectations for Chen as the country's new leader. "Faced with the current intricate situation, I hope that you will lead Taiwan into a new phase with open-mindedness and a new way of thinking," he said.
Lien said he respected the result of the election as the expression of the will of the people, adding that the smooth election process marked another watershed in Taiwan's democratization.
Lien also used the opportunity to try and lift the decidedly low morale of KMT members. The KMT vice chairman said his party has had a glorious tradition and has made concrete achievements as the ruling party in Taiwan, urging his party comrades to not lose heart after their defeat.
"We should restart again immediately, so that we'll regain support and approval from the people in Taiwan," he said.
After Lien himself acknowledged failure, chairman of the campaign committee Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) -- also the speaker of the Legislative Yuan -- said that it was still too early to make an accurate analysis of the failure. However, he said that according to their preliminary assessments, "there appeared unexpected variables in final days, especially the 'Shi Wen-lung (
Lee, president of Academia Sinica, and Hsu, president of Chi Mei and a close friend of President Lee Teng-hui (
"On the other hand, rumors of a `dump Lien and save Soong' effect, as well as `dump Lien and save Chen,' had been widely spread," Wang said.
Jason Hu (胡志強), Lien's campaign manager, also said that "it is not to be denied that there was a large gap between the real outcome and [our] expectation."
Hu insisted that according to a number of polls and research conducted by the KMT's camp, Lien has had the highest popularity rating among the candidates since March 8.
"However, according to the law, publication of poll results are banned during the ten days leading up to election day. Therefore, the message was not received by the public. Instead, people kept the old image that Lien was behind other candidates and this wrong message made them dump Lien," Hu said.
Hu denied the party organization has poor coordination.
Both Wang and Hu claimed responsibility for the party's landslide defeat, saying that Lien was himself an outstanding candidate and leader and that they, as campaign chiefs, failed to get him elected by the voters. Hu, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that he would withdraw from politics for a while.
When asked if the results indicated that the KMT's organizational mobilization system -- the party's most powerful weapon in elections -- had broken down, Wang did not directly answer the question.
"The scale of our organizational mobilization was unprecedented this time, and we made a huge effort," Wang said.
He added that the lack of success in yesterday's presidential election -- despite the KMT's organizational mobilization -- was reminiscent of the KMT's defeat in Taipei mayoral election in 1994, which Chen Shui-bian also won.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying