Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members are to choose a new party chair on Saturday next week in a contest between former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣).
In light of the party’s defeats in last month’s presidential and legislative elections, which led to calls for reform from younger members, both candidates need to make clear how they plan to steer the party in a new direction.
Hau has said that reform must include a generational transition, an alignment of ideas with prevailing public opinion and changes in the international situation. It is difficult to argue with those aspirations.
The 67-year-old Hau very much represents the KMT old guard, and has served two stints as vice chair since 2014. He comes from a well-connected family: His father, Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), served as premier from 1990 to 1993, after serving as chief of the general staff for eight years.
His age does not matter, but his seniority and experience ought to be a real advantage. Generational transition and reform do not, and should not, necessitate throwing away the past and starting anew: It requires a thread linking the desirable aspects of the party, while jettisoning — and acknowledging — the less desirable. It requires reassessing the party’s long-held stance on many issues and having the courage to embark on a new course.
Not a task for the weak or faint-hearted, the KMT chair taking up this challenge had better come prepared for a fight.
Unfortunately, Hau comes to the task weighed down by the party’s traditional hierarchical structure and two influential groups within it: the Huang Fu-hsing chapter — which includes KMT Legislator Wu Sz-huai, a retired lieutenant general — and supporters of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
These groups consist largely of older members who tend to be “deep blue,” uncritical of the Chinese Communist Party, anti-pension reform and pro-nuclear power, and resistant to emerging social trends, such as same-sex marriage.
It is the influence of these groups over the KMT that cost the party the elections in the first place — which is exactly what younger members are looking to change — and that is counter to the expectations of the electorate.
Yet Hau has been pandering to both groups. He has insisted that the Huang Fu-hsing chapter is “absolutely not resistant to reform” — which is difficult to believe — and promised that if elected, he would not try to get rid of it.
He has also praised Han and his achievements, calling him a treasure for the party, and has even taken credit for employing Han as general manager of the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co when he was Taipei mayor.
Hau’s problem is that the KMT chair is to be chosen by eligible party voters, many of whom are older and long-standing members due to the peculiarities of the membership system.
Han fans would be strongly represented among this group, while members of the chapter alone are expected to make up 20 percent of the voters.
If Hau is to have a chance to win, he must pander to these groups with long-standing vested interests and influence networks. This is hardly conducive to bringing in new ideas and launching meaningful reform.
Even more problematic is that Hau has risen through the ranks of this rigid, extremely hierarchical party structure. The same structure that is the main obstacle to reform is part of him.
The issue is not a lack of ideas; it is the entrenched insistence on having the same people deciding which ideas are to be taken up and clung to.
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