Saying the idea for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong(宋楚瑜) to kiss the ground at Saturday's rally was originally proposed by a reporter, a senior PFP campaigner yesterday disputed claims by KMT officials that the move had been initiated by Lien himself.
"The idea first came from a journalist who is covering the election," the official said.
"The idea was first treated as a joke. But, unexpectedly, the KMT leadership later began to seriously think about it," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
On Saturday, KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
The PFP official added that the decision-making process behind the campaign stunt appears rough.
"The decision was not finalized until the eve of Saturday's rallies. Sufficient preparations could not be made for the next day's kissing the ground by Lien and Soong in Taipei and Taichung, respectively," the official said.
"It was initially planned that the two should make the move simultaneously at 3:20pm that day. But it turned out that Soong did it first, followed by Lien," he said.
The result aroused complaints from the KMT, which did not like its chairman being a follower of his running-mate in a rally that would be crucial for the election on Saturday.
PFP Legislator Huang Yi-chiao (
The anonymous PFP official said the initial arrangement was for Lien and Soong to synchronize their move through television monitors set up at the sites of their rallies.
"But television signals could not be built between the rally sites in Taipei and Taichung overnight. The result was that Lien and Soong did not know what the other was doing at the rallies on Saturday," he said.
Soong knelt down to kiss the ground at 3:26pm, while Lien followed several minutes later.
Besides the failure to synchronize their moves, the two men used different gestures to highlight the theme of the rallies of the pair being "true lovers of the land of Taiwan."
Soong, along with his wife Chen Wan-shui (
Asked to comment on the difference between his gesture and that of Lien, Soong smiled and said the major difference was the height of the body to the ground.
Soong, talking with the press during the return trip from Tai-chung to Taipei Saturday night, showed reservation in his assessment of the value of the kissing move.
"I would like to have had more discussion in advance," Soong said, declining to elaborate.
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