The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to discipline three Irrigation and Water Conservancy Association heads over their public support for a plan to nationalize the associations, which is against the party line, a party source said on Sunday.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday last week passed amendments to the Organic Regulations for Irrigation and Water Conservancy Associations (農田水利會組織通則) amid a KMT boycott.
The amendments abolish direct elections for association heads and mandates the government to fill the positions by appointments.
On Tuesday last week, Hsieh Fu-hung (謝福弘) of Miaoli, Lin Keng-hsin (林庚辛) of Nantou and Yang Ming-feng (楊明風) of Chiayi-Tainan voiced their support for the proposal by speaking at a news conference called by the DPP caucus.
Their public support of the amendments was deemed embarrassing to the KMT, as KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) was at the time scrambling local party chapters and the pro-KMT associations to oppose the amendments.
The KMT is this week to initiate disciplinary hearings against the three association heads at local party chapters, the source said.
The three are to be accused of “contradicting the ideals, charter, platform, policy or resolutions of the party,” which carry the minimum penalty of suspension of party membership, the source said.
The maximum penalty is expulsion from the KMT, the source said, adding that such a measure would need to be ratified by the KMT Central Standing Committee tomorrow.
Yang has deviated from the party’s position and the KMT must treat the issue with an attitude that will be conducive for maintaining party cohesion, KMT Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), who is also the city’s chapter convener, said on Sunday.
“Yang called a news conference to support the government’s appointment of irrigation and water conservancy association heads, and put himself on a collision course with the party’s ideals and policies. Yang could have been decisive about it and quit the party himself,” Hsieh said.
DPP Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) criticized the KMT’s move, saying the “the incident shows that the KMT cannot see past partisanship when debating policies. Its path will get ever more narrow.”
Yang told the news conference that water is not blue or green, but clear, Liu said, adding that the KMT’s disciplinary action demonstrates “a tendency to self-belittle.”
The KMT in 1993 supported a proposal to reform the associations along the lines of the DPP’s current policy and it is saddening that the KMT would punish its members over the issue, Liu said.
The DDP is only doing what the KMT lacked the political will to do, he added.
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