PFP-KMT merger plan dies

KMT officials yesterday appeared uninterested in a proposed KMT-PFP merger.

Even KMT legislator John Chang (章孝嚴), who originally planned to officially raise the proposal before the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday, failed to show for the meeting.

According to KMT spokesman Wu Ching-ji (吳清基), no committee members raised the subject in yesterday's meeting, as, in his words, this is a matter that involves many practical problems and requires a consensus from both parties.

When asked by reporters to comment on Chang's proposal, Legislative Yuan speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said that further discussion is needed on the issue, as a merger seems to be an "immature" matter at the moment.

James Chen (陳健治), chairman of the party's Organization and Development Committee, said a merger is rather unlikely in light of its complexity, and furthermore it is unnecessary to merge the parties when cooperation is now sufficient to serve their purposes.

"It is my understanding that there is no plan to merge the two parties. It is the consensus between the KMT and PFP to conduct issue-based cooperation and work together during elections," Chen said.

Chang unveiled his plan to push for the merger on Tuesday, suggesting that both parties start to work on joining forces immediately after the year-end Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections are over.

Chang said that the merger was necessary to make possible a united "pan-blue" ticket in the 2004 presidential election, which he argued was crucial for victory.

The PFP immediately rejected Chang's proposal and insisted that a merger was unnecessary.

Even Chang's proposal to set up a collective leadership after the merger was dismissed by the PFP as mere "fantasy."