Blue camp ditches committee

KMT Alex Tsai (蔡正元) announced yesterday that there won't be a KMT-PFP Alliance Policy-making Committee (國親聯盟決策委員會), which was part of a deal made by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) at a meeting in February.

Tsai the remark yesterday after KMT Central Standing Committee's weekly meeting, which passed a motion not to establish the KMT-PFP policy making body.

A motion was also passed at the meeting to unveil the pan-blue camp presidential and vice presidential candidates by the end of this month.

In addition, the KMT and PFP will set up its presidential campaign headquarters at the KMT-owned Pate Building, located on Pate Road in Taipei, by the end of May.

Tsai Lien and Soong decided to abort their earlier agreement of establishing a KMT-PFP decision making body at their meeting last week.

Without Alliance Policy-making Committee, Tsai said the KMT-PFP alliance will set up eight panels to handle campaign-related issues, and the decisions over those issues will be jointly made by Lien and Soong.

Denying speculation that the policy-making committee was dropped because of severe infighting among party heavyweights for a position on the committee, KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-Cheng (林豐正) said that the Alliance Policy-making Committee was dropped to improve the administrative efficiency of the upcoming presidential campaign.

Media suggested that there were some problems with members of both parties vying for certain positions within the alliance after it failed to announce the of the committee last week.

KMT chairmen Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also denied the rumor that the abortion of the committee was a reflection of pan-blue infighting. They said the decision was made to simplify the administrative side of the campaign.

Such arrangements will not damage the cooperation between the two parties, Wu said. Instead, the decision to abandon the committee will help both parties to gather different opinions from within.

Each party will reach a consensus on issues before making a decision, Wu said.

Wu that the minority will not lead the majority. Regarding infighting over committee positions, Wu said he had never heard of such a thing.

Meanwhile, Ma said as long as the two parties can reach an agreement and the administration can run seamlessly, how the organization is structured should not be an issue.

Commenting the policy-making committee's demise, DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said the "rushed engagement" between Lien and Soong was put in place to prevent Ma from grabbing a position on the presidential ticket.

Lee said that Soong could become a "runaway bride" at any time and that this marriage of convenience would not bring happiness to anyone.

Lee said that because both the KMT and the PFP were only looking at the financial benefits that come with the "marriage," power would not be divided well between the two.

"Everyone knew very well about Soong's strong wish to run for the presidency, and if the KMT and the PFP could not agree on a decision-making body, will Soong become a "runaway bride?," asked Lee.