Lien Chan: trying to keep the leaky KMT afloat

While some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators were demanding KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) head earlier this week, the bulk of the party has decided to back Lien.

While lunching with Legislative Speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) earlier this week, it was reported that the legislators voiced strong support for party reform, including removal of top leaders.

Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) wanted the heads of officials from the vice chairman down, but another legislator, Chang Chang-tsai (張昌財) went a step further, saying the party had to change its chairman.

But the subject of replacing the leadership seemed to fade away after the legislators met with Lien later in the week to reflect on the loss of the presidential election and discuss preparations for the upcoming legislative election.

After the meeting, Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) said the legislators had agreed to put off the leadership issue until after elections in December.

Although Legislator Justin Huang (黃健庭) said last week that a change of power would take place sooner or later, it now seems the timing will be later rather than sooner.

Legislator Bill Sun (孫國華) pointed out that any change at the top needs to wait at least until the election recount is completed, because if the result favored the pan-blue camp, Lien's leadership would no longer be an issue.

"Chairman Lien has declared that he will think about how he should be held responsible for the presidential election only after the legislative election," Sun said.

"It is doubtful if a new leadership could turn the KMT's [fortunes] around now. Apart from that, Wang and [Taipei Mayor] Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) each face the dilemma of the dual roles they occupy," Sun said.

Sun was suggesting it might be difficult for Wang and Ma to strike a balance between their roles as legislative speaker and mayor and their party leadership roles if they replaced Lien.

Even pro-localization legislators agreed that Lien should stay to prevent the KMT from falling apart.

"Chairman Lien is the only one now who can keep members of different ethnicities in the party. If he quits, it is likely the Mainlanders will walk out and the party will not be able to maintain its ethnic diversity," Legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) said. Hsu is considered the leading figure within the KMT's pro-localization faction.

"Within our party there are some people who still haven't caught up with democratic trends. They still believe in autocratic rule. So if the chairman goes, it would be as if the head of the family had left and this frightens them," Hsu said.

"The current appeals for Lien to stay are not about consolidating his power. His staying on is instead functional -- to bond the members of different ethnicities," he said.

Some commentators share this opinion.

Not easy being blue

"It is not easy being KMT chairman right now. Wang and Ma each represent only one part of the KMT. Lien is still a chairman that most party members can accept," said Emile Sheng (盛治仁), an associate professor of political science at Soochow University.

"It remains uncertain if the party could proceed smoothly with its legislative election campaign if a new chairman were to be installed now. The recount is also still in the works, and it and the election campaign both need to be dealt with. So it is more likely that the KMT will defer considering a change of leadership until after the legislative election," Sheng said.

Veteran media figure Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏) said that one reason Lien had not stepped down was because the KMT was unprepared for an election loss.

"The party thought a win was certain. It did not think about transferring the leadership to a new generation," Yang said.

"Lien had promised that after he won the election, he would not continue as party chairman when his term finishes in August next year," he said.

"Another reason for the delay of the power transfer is that during the campaign, Lien kept his distance from everyone; he hadn't picked a successor," Yang said.

"Although it seems that things are harmonious, with everyone calling for Lien to stay, leadership hopefuls are in fact battling with one other to grab the king's scepter. Lien's prolonged presence is partly to give the different factions more time to deploy," he said.

Yang also said that the People First Party (PFP) was unwilling to see the KMT undergo a change of leadership now because it would then face the same demand from its party members. He added that it was certain that PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) would not survive the next election for party chairman.

"Changing party leaders would not be good for these two chairmen, but it would be a good thing for Taiwan's democracy," Yang said.

"Yet, the funny thing is that the trajectories of these two parties are heading in opposite directions to the development of Taiwan's democracy. The parties remain reluctant to undergo a change of leadership," he said.

No direction

Lien's staying on as chairman has now received broad support from party members, but one thing they cannot agree on is what direction the party should take prior to the legislative election.

Pro-localization legislators have expressed grave concern over the pan-blue camp's post-election rallies, which have led to sporadic violence. They have instead suggested that the party adopt a middle position in the political spectrum to attract moderate voters for the legislative election.

Some KMT figures, such as Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), have identified this middle road as the only one to take in attracting Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) voters, the most populous ethnic group in Taiwan.

This proposal was rejected, however, by other legislators. KMT legislative caucus whip Liao Feng-te (廖風德) dismissed the suggestion for fear that the KMT might shift too far and end up as another Taiwan Solidarity Union.

Hsu said it was precisely the thinking of people like Liao that stopped the KMT from recovering.

When Hsu met Lien on Thursday, he strongly recommended that the KMT needed more "doves" than "hawks." Hsu reasoned that if the hawks' power continued to grow, it would only push the KMT in the direction of the PFP, which was what the party did not need.

"The problem is not only that the PFP are all hawks -- all the KMT top officials are hawks too. There are also hawks on the outside who want to take over the KMT," Hsu said.

Hsu said the "hawks on the outside" were led by independent Legislator Sisy Chen (陳文茜).

"But the KMT needs to adjust to fulfill the needs of the majority of the people. Those who oppose such adjustments are narrow-minded and not qualified to be politicians," Hsu said.

"We lost the presidential election because the party even today retains the arrogance of the Taipei citizenry and the intelligentsia. We have yet to shed the myths of elite politicking," he said.