Ma denies having rocky relations with Lien Chan

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) denied again yesterday that he has a problematic relationship with the party's former leader.

The issue arose after 25 KMT lawmakers invited Lien Chan (連戰) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to dinner on Monday night, and suggested that the pair form a ticket for the 2008 presidential election.

According to several legislators who were at the dinner, Lien shrugged off the 2008 appeal but complained that Ma had failed to respond to his suggestion that Wang form a Cabinet.

"I have never heard such thing," Ma said at Taipei City Hall when asked to comment on Lien's idea that Wang form a Cabinet.

KMT Spokesman Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) said Ma had not been told by Lien or anyone else that Wang should form a Cabinet, and therefore the chairman had no comment on the issue.

"It has been the KMT's insistence that forming or joining a Cabinet would be the whole party's concern, rather than that of any one individual," Huang said.

As to the possibility of Lien representing the party in the 2008 race, Huang said the KMT was open to the issue and respected legislators' personal opinions.