TSU legislators threaten to quit party

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators Yin Ling-ying (尹伶瑛) and David Huang (黃適卓) yesterday threatened to quit the party if it did not meet their demands.

Yin told reporters before the TSU's Central Executive Committee convened yesterday that she would withdraw from the party if it failed to reinstate the memberships of Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) and Huang Chung-yung (黃宗源) within a week.

The TSU expelled Liao and Huang Chung-yung last Monday, saying the pair had been "uncooperative" and had failed to toe the party line.

David Huang, meanwhile, said he would make a decision on his membership once TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) comes clean on his relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Huang Kun-huei is a former KMT member.

David Huang also asked Huang Kun-huei to explain why he had made an all-out effort to undermine cooperation between the party and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and to state whether he wanted the party to lean toward the KMT.

The TSU and the DPP have agreed to cooperate in January's legislative elctions.

The TSU's Central Executive Committee yesterday resolved to admonish Yin and David Huang. The committee agreed to revoke the pair's candidacies if they continue to make remarks detrimental to the party and to expel them if such a move proves necessary.

The committee yesterday also verified the expulsions of Liao Pen-yen and Huang Chung-yung.

TSU Legislator Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉), director of the party's caucus office and one of the initiators of the motion to dismiss Liao and Huang Chung-yung, said the lawmakers had skipped caucus meetings and failed to respond to its orders for two months.

Lin criticized the pair for their alleged close relationship with the DPP's disbanded New Tide faction and said Liao and Huang Chung-yun were too close to Vice Premier Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), a former member of the faction, and took orders from him.

David Huang said on Saturday that he was confused by the dismissal of Liao and Huang Chung-yung and that he should be expelled too if being too close to DPP members was the reason behind the two men's expulsion.

Yin said at the time that if she won an opinion poll she would run as a DPP candidate in Yunlin County's second constituency. If she lost, she said she would be more than happy to serve as DPP candidate Liu Chien-kuo's (劉建國) campaign chief.

Huang Kun-huei said yesterday that the party would not expel Yin and David Huang.

"If they do not identify with the party line, they are welcome to leave the party. We will not force them to leave, or ask them to stay," he said.

Huang Kun-huei said the party would monitor the legislators words and deeds and take "appropriate" action.

In related news, the DPP issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying that Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), the party's legislative candidate in Taipei City's Wanhua (萬華) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts, and David Huang had agreed to let opinon polls decide who will represent the pan-green camp in the legislative elections.