Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) made her last tour in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, with the new legislature set to convene tomorrow.
Hung, whose 26-year-long career as a legislator is coming to an end, said goodbye to the staff at the Legislative Yuan compound.
Hung said that she was 40 when she first walked into the Legislative Yuan and has since “contributed her most productive and mature years to the institution.”
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Seeing that many of her former classmates have retired from their respective careers, Hung said she felt she should retire as well.
Although Hung said she was retiring, she picked up a registration form to run in the chairpersonship by-election for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
When asked by the reporters to comment on a rumor about a “Hung-blocking” plan within the KMT, Hung said: “I do not care about it and I do not feel [that such a plan is at work]; maybe I am a bit slow.”
She said there are only comrades and no enemies within the party. There might be different points of views, but what is important is to make one’s ideas clear, she added.
“One must maintain a healthy mind. Taking in stride when facing this kind of [defeated] atmosphere and having our comrades and society better understand [our views] is what we have to do,” Hung said.
Regarding concerns that the KMT could follow in the footsteps of the New Party if Hung is elected as party chairperson, Hung said that the worries were unnecessary, adding that party members could have a clearer and common goal through discussion.
She rejected a description of the by-election as a “local versus non-local,” race, as former New Taipei city councilor Chen Ming-yih (陳明義), who dropped out of the race on Friday, described it.
Hung said that she does not believe that it is so and if the by-election is seen that way from the outside, she would break that image.
Hung lauded KMT Acting Chairperson Huang Min-hui’s (黃敏惠) decision to run, saying it is not a light responsibility as the party is at its nadir and as the next chairperson’s term would be one-and--a-half years long.
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