Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Having repeatedly stated his wish for a KMT-PFP joint presidential ticket featuring the two party chairmen, Lien Chan (
Despite enthusiastic support from within the KMT for Ma to be part of the joint bid, Ma reiterated that he hoped to see Lien and Soong start working toward their own cooperation.
"We must learn from previous examples where the pan-blue camp lost important elections. All of those failures warned us that we must cooperate in order to win the election," Ma said yesterday in an interview with BCC Radio.
Ma was referring to the blue camp's unsuccessful bids in the last presidential election in 2000, the Taipei County Magistrate elections in 2001 and the Kaohsiung City Mayor election in 2002.
Amid calls from KMT heavyweights and pro-localization legislators for an all-KMT ticket featuring a younger political star such as Ma, the Taipei mayor played down the suggestion, saying, "It is normal for a party to have different opinions. It means the KMT is no longer a dictatorial institution, but it listens to different opinions."
But Ma stressed, "There is no doubt that only solidarity can bring success, while division leads to failure. It's an unchanging principle."
In response to a question on whether he would advance his party position from a KMT Central Standing Committee member to a party vice chairman, Ma said, "I prefer to remain as a member of the Central Standing Committee, as my workload as Taipei mayor wouldn't allow me to concentrate on the vice chairman's post, which requires much more work."
Meanwhile, Ma also criticized the ruling DPP government for being too conservative in policies regarding cross-strait interaction and for the delay in fully opening direct links with China.
"The central government has always told us that direct links are not a panacea, but at the moment, I think we must do it," he said.
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