A group of up-and-coming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members yesterday held a news conference calling on the party leadership to admit defeat in the presidential election, conduct a generational transfer of power, back comprehensive reform and find the party's true direction.
More than 20 representatives of a KMT unit known as the "Chunghsing [rejuvenation] Elite Group" (中興菁英班), established two years ago to revitalize the party's standing among younger people, yesterday convened a press conference calling on the party to face up to the mistakes it made in the election campaign, investigate the reasons for its failure and implement immediate reform.
The group's membership includes academics, businesspeople and other professionals.
"We call on the leadership of the party to recognize defeat in the election. And even if the court recount overturns the result, the party must still honestly look at the rottenness and paralysis in its campaign," said Chiu Teh-hung (
"We are standing up now in the hope that the KMT will, with all its might, reform and become more dynamic," he said.
Chiu said that since March 20, the KMT and the people of Taiwan had fallen into a pit. But he said the KMT could not wait until the election result was confirmed before implementing reforms.
The clock was ticking, he said, and the right moment for reform would not wait for anyone to catch up.
"In the KMT right now we only see senior figures struggling to hold power. We don't see a cast-iron commitment to reform. The less than palatable facts about the election have nothing to do with a recount overturning the election result," Chiu said.
"The KMT must acknowledge some of those facts first. Only then can it truly reform itself," he said.
After its defeat in the 2000 presidential election, the KMT sought to attract new blood for leadership positions following the regaining of power. It therefore formed the Chunghsing Elite Group in July 2002. It has held seven recruitment drives and boasts 270 members.
These new members have been described as "Chairman Lien Chan's (
The Democratic Progressive Party and the People First Party have bot, made contact with some of the group's members in the hope of winning them over to their organizations.
Kuo Chia-fen (
However, Wu Chih-yang (吳志揚), son of KMT Vice Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and another member of the group, had promised to back Chiu's push for reform but decided not to attend the press conference.
He adopted a less radical stance, urging the party to reform as quickly as possible and to abandon its tradition of favoring the older generation in nomination procedures, but stopped short of urging it to admit defeat in the election.
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