In his concession speech, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) followed a KMT custom and announced his decision to step down as party chairman as a way of taking responsibility for the party’s devastating loss in Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.
Chu pledged to re-examine the direction of the KMT’s policies, selection of personnel and failure to grasp the pulse of public opinion, but stopped short of apologizing for any specific policies implemented by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration in his two terms.
Chu’s resignation alone did not amount to an acknowledgement of failure on his part or of the mistakes made by Ma and the KMT; it was a formality that neither suggested repentance nor a determination to push for party reform.
According to the KMT charter, Chu can seek re-election as chairman as long as he follows procedures by stepping down and allowing one of the party’s vice chairmen to serve as interim chairman.
The election for a new party leader must be held within three months of his resignation.
However, it would mean more to voters if Chu had stepped down as New Taipei City mayor, the job he is expected to return to after a three-month leave of absence.
Given that the KMT managed to hold onto only two of the 10 legislative seats representing New Taipei City that it held, Chu should step aside to allow for the election of a new mayor who could better represent the “new opinion” of the city’s residents.
Meanwhile, the evasive attitude of KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) at a post-election news conference late on Saturday at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei reflected the party’s long-standing unwillingness to reflect on its mistakes.
When asked what could have contributed to the KMT’s defeat and whether the party would consider revising its cross-strait policies, Lee said that the party would take into account all possible factors and publish a self-reflection in the next few months.
Pressed by reporters, he acknowledged that the controversy surrounding Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) — the Taiwanese member of the South Korean pop group TWICE — could have contributed to the KMT’s losses.
A video of Chou’s apology — published on the eve of the elections — for briefly holding a Republic of China flag during a South Korean TV show triggered widespread anger in Taiwan, with many people blasting Ma’s “one China, with different interpretations” framework as a self-deceiving illusion.
Ma’s apology, in a video also released on Friday, for the public discontent caused by what he said were the “the timing and manner” in which some of his policies were implemented, also reeked of impenitence.
The party’s reluctance to acknowledge its mistakes is going to make it more difficult for it to pick itself up from Saturday’s disaster, particularly after losing 3 million votes and 29 legislative seats compared with the 2012 elections.
The only reason the DPP was able to win the presidential election — and win an unprecedented majority in the legislature — after sustaining a similarly disastrous defeat eight years ago is because it has endeavored to learn from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) mistakes.
It also managed to persuade many of its older members to take a backseat to younger ones and strove hard to be more in-sync with public opinion.
However, given rumors that the KMT chairmanship is likely to be filled by one of the party’s old guard, such as Ma, Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) or Chu, any hopes the KMT might have of returning to power four years from now are likely to be just a pipe dream.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS