Shen Fu-hsiung quits ruling party

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) announced his withdrawal from the party yesterday.

Approached for comment at the legislature, Shen, a four-term DPP legislator, said he had stayed "long enough" and "done enough" for the party.

Shen said there was no need for him to stay in the party now that "bad boys" within the DPP felt nothing about his outspokenness against them. He did not elaborate.

"I am a good DPP member. People [in the party] just don't like me," he said.

Lee Cheng-yee (李政毅), director of the DPP's Taipei City chapter, confirmed yesterday that Shen had returned his party membership card to the chapter.

Shen had been a member since 1992 when he ran for legislator under the party flag.

However, he was long considered a "loner" because of his outspokenness about the party's policies or other members with whom he disagreed.

He created a stir before the 2004 presidential poll when he gave credence to claims by tycoon-turned-fugitive Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) that the businessman had given a donation to first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) 10 years earlier.

Chen Yu-hao said Shen had been a witness to the transaction.

Shen's unwillingness to contradict Chen Yu-hao's allegations threatened to derail President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election campaign in the week before the poll.

Shen has been sharply criticized ever since by pan-green supporters, who denounced him for being a DPP apostate and for making connections with pro-blue figures.

In April 2004, Shen urged pro-green politicians to stop using the phrase "love Taiwan" as an encapsulation of their pro-localization stance, saying the phrase was detrimental to ethnic harmony between the majority Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mainlanders who came to Taiwan after 1945.

In May this year, Shen suffered an embarrassing defeat in the party's legislative primary along with 10 other members of DPP's former New Tide faction.

DPP Central Standing Committee member Huang Ching-lin (黃慶林) said yesterday that members whose "ideals are different from the party's" should not stay because this would "cause trouble" for the party. Huang said Shen could bring his talents into full play somewhere else.

DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told reporters that he would try to urge Shen to stay, but the chances that he would succeed were slim.