The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has no immediate plan to relax its regulations so that former chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) could remain the party's presidential candidate if he were found guilty of corruption, KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
KMT regulations state that any member found guilty of a crime would be suspended.
Wu said that although some party members and grassroots supporters wanted the party to amend its regulations to only suspend members if they are found guilty on appeal, there were no plans to do so.
The KMT's so-called "black gold exclusion clause" was formulated by the party's Central Standing Committee and revised under Ma's chairmanship last year to stipulate that any party member who is indicted on suspicion of a crime should be suspended.
Wu said that KMT regulations were tougher than those of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which state that members should be suspended if found guilty on appeal.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Whether to amend the regulations should hinge on public sentiment," Wang said. "If the KMT is seen to be eroding its own moral standards, how could voters feel sympathetic to the party and continue to support it?"
The issue provoked another quarrel between Ma's and Wang's supporters.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), a Ma supporter, said amending the regulation would prevent party members from being removed from the presidential race by political interference from the DPP.
"To be able to deal with a rogue party like the DPP we need to consider the amendment. If we don't revise it, some party members beset by litigation might be disqualified from the legislative elections. It's a problem that concerns not just Ma, but the party as a whole," he said.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who supports Wang, said that it would be improper to amend the regulation.
Some pro-Ma legislators also expressed unease about amending the clause.
"It's unnecessary to amend the regulation. Undue manipulation would only hurt Ma's image and that of the party," KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) said.
Meanwhile, the party yesterday confirmed that former chairman Lien Chan (連戰) was scheduled to meet Ma and Wang this morning in an effort to pair them in the presidential election.
Lien, however, denied that he would try to persuade Ma to accept a "Wang-Ma" presidential ticket at the meeting. He also denied that Wu Den-yih and acting KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) would side with Ma against Lien and Wang.
After a 30-minute meeting with Lien yesterday morning, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said that Lien had stressed the importance of KMT unity at the meeting, and said that the party would not win the presidential election if Ma and Wang did not pair up.
"Lien is pretty flexible, and I think his political wisdom would make the negotiations successful," Hau told the press after the meeting at Lien's office.
Ma, on the other hand, left home for a private dinner party with friends in the afternoon. It was his first public appearance after announcing his presidential bid on Tuesday night.
"Thank you all. I feel very calm now," Ma told the press gathered in front of his residence when they approached him for comment.
Wang, who has been evasive about whether he planned to run for president next year, said at a separate event yesterday that he did not expect to reach a consensus with Ma before the next Lunar New Year, which starts on Sunday.
"I need more time to make a careful assessment," Wang said.
also see story:
Editorial: Ma tosses out his trump card
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