Pan-blue legislators said yesterday the passing of Soong Mayling (
"Soong Mayling's death is an opportunity for Taiwan's electorate, in the run up to next March's presidential election, to engage in introspection on where it wants Taiwan to go," said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (
Soong, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, died in her sleep at the age of 105 in her home in New York last Thursday.
Considered by many as one of the most influential Chinese women of the 20th century, Soong's charisma and political adeptness were among the driving forces of the then KMT government under the leadership of her husband, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
Chen said China was one of the world's four most powerful nations during Soong's time.
"Comparing now and then, Taiwan's electorate will decide [next March] where it wants Taiwan to go -- to strive to retrieve its past glory, or to be like a small country as it is now," Chen said.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-jun (
"Given that Madame Chiang Kai-shek was a historical figure, in addition to the fact that she had long left Taiwan's political scene, her death should not have much of an impact on voters in the upcoming presidential election," Lee said.
"Hopefully her death will, however, lead Taiwan's public to reflect on history and how Taiwan has changed," he said.
Chen said Soong's death won't have an impact on the election because, "This time the pan-blue camp is not split as it was in 2000."
In the 2000 election, the blue-camp vote was split, with KMT Chairman Lien Chen (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) each vying for the presidency.
In view of the split, Soong Mayling issued a statement in support of Lien from her home in New York.
In her letter, she urged Lien to win back elite KMT members who had left to support James Soong.
"This time the pan-blue camp has united to field a joint ticket for the presidential election," Chen said.
"The death of Soong Mayling will not affect pan-blue supporters' choice of one pan-blue candidate over another."
Wu Tung-yeh (吳東野), a political scientist at National Chengchi University, said Soong's death could be used by the pan-blue camp as an opportunity to consolidate support.
A huge flower-studded portrait of Soong was raised in an anti-independence demonstration in Taipei on Saturday. A similar portrait was hung outside KMT headquarters in Taipei yesterday.
"Just as the Democratic Progressive Party's march Saturday for a new constitution through a national referendum was in part an effort to consolidate its support-base, the pan-blue camp of the KMT and the PFP did so as well to consolidate its voter-base," Wu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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