Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday dismissed speculation that he can't control the party's legislative caucus, saying that he did not intend to lead like a dictator.
The KMT caucus on Tuesday decided to oppose President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nomination of Hsieh Wen-ding (謝文定) to be state public prosecutor-general, dooming his appointment. Ma later expressed surprise at the caucus' decision to oppose the nomination rather than to hold an open vote on the issue.
Yesterday he rejected questions that cast doubt upon his leadership capabilities because he could not stop the caucus from opposing the nomination.
"The KMT caucus made a decision, but [some people] blamed the chairman for not giving orders. [Controlling the caucus] is a path toward dictatorship, and I will never walk that path," Ma said.
He urged the government not to shift the blame for the failure of Hsieh's nomination onto the KMT.
"The KMT can't decide everything. We hope that different voices can be heard in the caucus during the decision-making process," he said.
While stressing his unwillingness to issue orders to the caucus, Ma called on the caucus to make decisions with a measure of responsibility, taking into account public opinion and using reason.
KMT legislators Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) denied the caucus had "kidnapped" Ma by making a decision behind his back.
"Most of the legislators opposed the nomination of Hsieh during the caucus meeting, that's why the caucus made its decision," Wu said yesterday morning before attending the KMT's Central Standing Committee meeting.
Wu said the party had failed to give legislators more chances to express their opinions before the caucus meeting. He said the party leadership should communicate better with legislators to prevent similar incidents.
Huang did not agree that vote had been the result of miscommunication between the party and the caucus, but acknowledged that the caucus meeting had been held in a hurry.
But other KMT lawmakers feel that Ma had been "kidnapped" by those with hardline positions on political confrontation.
"Some people who recently joined the KMT from the People First Party [PFP] and the New Party have hijacked Ma. They oppose everything for the sake of opposition," Legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (
Hsu said he would appeal to fellow lawmakers who can mediate to form a caucus sub-group to deal with their more hardline colleagues.
Hsu said hawkish legislators are using Ma to further their own interests, which would damage the party's image.
Another KMT lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he thought Ma was aware of the caucus' decision ahead of the vote.
Huang said she was very disappointed with the caucus' decision on the veto.
Meanwhile, as the KMT Central Standing Committee was taking place, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Tsai Chi-fang (
"We are afraid that Grandpa Lien will forget about the Republic of China [ROC] when he goes to China, and so we are asking him to take the national flags there and echo Ma's 1992 consensus," Tsai said in front of KMT headquarters.
Lien is leading a delegation of KMT lawmakers, academics and business executives to a two-day economic forum with the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing tomorrow. He is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The three DPP legislators urged Lien to clarify the so-called "1992 consensus" that both sides of the Taiwan Strait can interpret the meaning of "one China" separately, and stressed the existence of the ROC.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching