The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus invited the party’s four chairperson candidates to a caucus meeting yesterday, saying that the party needs intra-party democracy and an induction of younger people.
With the chairperson election on Saturday next week, the hopefuls attended the caucus meeting to seek legislators’ support, calling the legislature the only place the party could still make a difference.
The caucus asked candidates whether party officials at the local party chapters should be elected, rather than appointed, but the candidates responded with their own criticisms and demands.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsin (李新) criticized the caucus for “failing to grasp the essential point” of the question asked.
“We have been through two political tsunamis, [the local elections last year and the presidential and legislative elections this year], but no one in the party has examined why,” Lee said, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), while being lauded for his achievements, should be held accountable to some extent for the party’s downward spiral, and the fact that no younger people have been recruited and cultivated.
Lee called on the caucus to “have the guts” and launch a takeover of party headquarters, “which should now play a standby role,” and establish a committee to reform party affairs.
Former deputy legislative speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said that the party should not alter its ideals, principles or core values.
“Can the Constitution be amended? Yes, but we should also truthfully inform [the people] of the possible consequences,” she said. “Why are young people ‘naturally independence-leaning?’ There is a reason for that. There are many principles from which we cannot back downd. The party has long lost its power to argue, retreating from its stance and not daring to state its own beliefs.”
Apollo Chen (陳學聖), the only legislator of the four candidates, said that the only approach left for the KMT, which will soon be the opposition party, would be fighting in the legislature.
“The battlefield will now be in the legislature, the only place where the party can have any power over the ruling party,” he said. “In the legislature, the leader of the minority party can make immediate responses to major issues. As the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] attempts to use transitional justice as an excuse to purge the KMT, the party chairperson, if also a legislator, could work with the caucus and form an indispensable opposition,” he said.
Acting Chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠), a former mayor of Chiayi, underlined her experience in the southern city, saying that the mayoral election was a tough fight that made history for both the KMT and Taiwan. She said that she is not against the direct election of local party officials, as long as there are sufficient supporting measures.
KMT Legislator-at-large Jason Hsu (許毓仁) suggested that the KMT “disintegrate the party and remake the party into ‘KMT 2.0’” and “discard the top-down communication style” if it wishes to attract younger members.
Legislator Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) said he has been running in elections for more than 30 years, “but I have found that the people the party mobilize [to join campaign activities] never change,” calling for a “revitalization of the local party organizations.”
Legislator-at-large John Wu (吳志揚) made the suggestion that the four candidates and the party’s legislators watch the vote-counting process together next Saturday “to demonstrate the party’s solidarity,” a suggestion all of the candidates approved.
The winner of the chairperson election has to garner more than 50 percent of the total votes cast next Saturday, if not a second round of voting would be required.
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