In an effort to recover from his chronically low popularity rating, presidential candidate Lien Chan (
First of all, on the day he established his campaign headquarters, Lien proposed to put KMT party property in trust. President Lee Teng-hui's (
Then, Lien's campaign team released public statements saying that once Lien is elected president, the position of party chairman will become vacant. Lee still has two years to go as the KMT's party chairman after the election, so this statement is no different from denying him the role of gray eminence in the event Lien is elected.
Lien's support rate has consistently remained low. His campaign aides blame it on Lee, who they say keeps Lien in his shadow, creating the impression with the public that Lien cannot stand on his own feet or that he is simply incapable.
Lee has retained a tight hold on power and has refused to let Lien be his own boss. Looking at other democratic countries around the world, one can not see a president so near the end of his term so determined to stay in the limelight. A senior official at the Presidential Office, Su Chih-cheng (
Looking back at a series of political turning points, Lien has not been significant. In the 1998 legislators' election and the 1999 nominations for the president and vice president of the Legislative Yuan, Lee was the dominant force. Even for last year's policy change regarding stock exchange tax, Lien was not informed of the details. Last May, when the National Assembly deputies were amending the Constitution, Lien's reform proposals were totally ignored by Lee, even though he was nominally the KMT convener.
In June of 1999, Lee announced a US$300 million financial aid package for Kosovo. Lien failed to play a leading role in this, and was not even present for the press conference.
Although the presidential election is looming and Lee is not on the presidential ticket, he continues to criticize Lien. On the publication of Lien's autobiography, he said that Lien was too inclined to blow his own trumpet. Moreover, without any consultation with Lien, Lee came up with his special state-to-state model in July and called a press conference after the 921 earthquake, which took place without Lien attending.
With Lee unwilling to relinquish power, Lien cannot but be anxious. Despite the unpopularity of Su Chih-cheng and Liu Tai-ying, both close associates of Lee, who have done so much to spread rumors and mislead the public, Lien can do nothing about it. And he is constantly brought up against his own languishing popularity rating. It is not hard to understand why he is eating his heart out over this.
When Lien announced the policy of putting KMT party assets in trust, he did not mention Lee. The Presidential Office, however, sent out word that the idea came from Lee in an apparent effort to prevent Lien from gaining any credit for the proposal.
Recent rumor has it that Lien will publish his China policy without mention of Lee's "go slow, be patient" policy. It will be interesting to see how Lee will react to this. No matter what happens, Lien certainly knows the taste of being in second place.
Julian Kuo is an associate professor of political science at Soochow University.
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