Tue, Aug 20, 2002 page8

• Editorial: Is political loyalty an oxymoron?

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  The race for the post of Kaohsiung mayor appears to be getting vicious months before the start of the official campaign -- at least within the KMT.

  James Chen (陳健治), director-general of the KMT's Organization and Development Committee, offered to resign yesterday to protest the decision to dump Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英) as the party's contender for the Kaohsiung race in favor of former interior minister (and independent) Chang Po-ya (張博雅). Chen's move follows Saturday's KMT Central Committee's plenary session, when the suggestion was put forth that Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) run for president in 2004.

  Suspicions have arisen within the KMT that Lien is willing to sacrifice the party's candidate to placate PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and keep him amenable to a Lien-Soong ticket in 2004. For Lien, Kaohsiung is merely a prelude to 2004 and therefore can be sacrificed for the sake of maintaining KMT-PFP cooperation in the run-up to 2004. To Lien, Kaohsiung is far less important than the presidential election, but other KMT leaders do not think so.

  Lien and Soong have agreed to jointly nominate a candidate for the Kaohsiung race. Given that PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄) has been reluctant to run, the KMT thought Huang, the vice president of I-Shou University and a former Kao-

  hsiung deputy mayor, would be a shoo-in. Huang was chosen by the KMT through consensus. The party wasn't even worried about angering Kaohsiung Council Speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川), who may have wanted the job. Ever since the party recommended him for the nomination, Huang Jun-ying has been canvassing hard for grassroots support.

  In late June, however, Chang Po-ya announced her candidacy, throwing a monkey wrench into the pan-blue camp's plans. The KMT headquarters kept telling Huang not to give up and he believed what he was hearing, unaware that Lien and Soong had secretly listed Chang as a candidate.

  The PFP wants to participate in elections, but it lacks talent and resources. The PFP's strategy for both the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral races has been to maintain pan-blue cooperation and use public opinion polls to resolve inter-camp disputes over who is the best candidate. It will support anyone who can block a DPP victory and has some chance of winning. But the PFP has never had confidence in Haung Jun-ying as a candidate. So it was happy to see former DPP chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) express interest in running for Kaohsiung mayor. It was even happier when Chang Po-ya said she wanted to enter the race.

  Now that it looks like Lien is dumping Huang in favor of Soong's choice, the KMT leader will have a hard time complaining about how former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) dumped him in favor of the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the 2000 presidential election. Lien may finally understand how much determination it took for Lee to support a candidate widely viewed as unlikely to win.

  The KMT now appears willing to take a wait-and-see attitude over the rivalry between Huang and Chang. Such an irresolute attitude shows Lien's

  policy-making style as well as the confusion of values within the KMT. To resolve the dispute, the KMT will have to prioritize its objectives -- does it want to win the race or save face, does it want to cultivate talent for the party or pave the way for the 2004 presidential elections? The KMT will have to come up with a clear objective if it wants to ensure party cohesiveness, enhance KMT-PFP cooperation and create the possibility of winning the election.

  Shilly-shallying over candidates is hardly the kind of behavior that creates a winning campaign. What it does do is plant the seeds for a defeat.
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