Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman and chairmanship candidate Steve Chan (詹啟賢) yesterday called the KMT a “diverse and inclusive” party, saying that supposed infighting between its “local” and “nonlocal” camps would ruin the KMT.
In a radio interview, Chan was asked about local media labeling him and former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is also running for the KMT chairmanship, as more “local” than KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), a waishengren (外省人) — people and their descendents who fled from China after the KMT’s defeat in the Chinese Civil War — who reportedly has the support of the party’s Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch.
He challenged the categorization, calling into question the definition of “local.”
Photo: CNA
“Is being a native Taiwanese [as opposed to a waishengren] ‘local?’ Or voting in central or southern Taiwan? Or speaking Taiwanese [commonly known as Hoklo]?” Chan asked, contending that “local” and “nonlocal” are “generalized groupings” used by the media.
“We should refrain from using simplified classifications. What is crucial is candidates’ ideas for the party,” he said.
“Mine are that of the ‘middle way,’ which is to say that the KMT should, while keeping the Republic of China standpoint, ponder how the Taiwanese public’s interests could be best maintained,” Chan said, adding that the KMT’s “greatest value to Taiwan” is its diversity and tolerance.
He rejected the notion that being a waishengren inevitably means belonging to the “nonlocal” group, as being a “‘local,’ if Taiwan’s history is any reference, has been nonexclusive and open to various cultures from the very beginning.”
In its more than six decades in Taiwan, the KMT has always been inclusive and has incorporated different groups, “which runs contrary to the Democratic Progressive Party, whose ‘local’ is exclusive in character,” Chan said, adding that through his bid for the chairmanship he aims to provide another option to the party following that dichotomy.
“Dividing the party [by whether a member is ‘local’] is a path the KMT cannot take. How do they [other candidates] plan to unify the party after the election if this is how they plan to win the race?” he asked.
Chan called on new party members to “distinguish between personal connections and the interests of the whole,” amid reports of a sudden influx of members and applicants, of which many are “nominal members” or have backgrounds tied to organized crime.
As of last week, the party has accepted about 19,000 new members this year, in addition to more than 9,000 who renewed their memberships, increasing the total of effective members to more than 300,000, “a rate of increase that is quite substantial,” he said.
Whether new members have organized crime backgrounds should be investigated, but the more pressing question is that of their motivation, as they might have joined the party with a particular aim and will probably disappear after the election, he added.
“I cannot say that their applications were made to help a particular candidate win the election, but even if they were, no rules were broken,” Chan said.
“All I can do now is call for all members to be objective and rational, and ask them not to be bound by clientelism and bear in mind the larger picture for the party and Taiwan as a whole when voting in the chairperson election,” he added.
Separately yesterday, the KMT said it had turned down a membership application from Wan Shao-cheng (萬少丞), who allegedly played a role in the beating death of off-duty police detective Hsueh Chen-kuo (薛貞國) at a Taipei nightclub in September 2014.
The party said it would increase scrutiny in the vetting process and begin an investigation into who mediated Wan’s application.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS