Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) announcement on Monday has been a bombshell in the political sphere, leaving many to believe that “the boy who cried wolf” has now committed to seeing his campaign through to the end. With another entrant in the race, the jockeying between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜), independent presidential candidate Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) show no signs of cooling, while the call for “unity” among an “anti-green coalition” seems ever more out of reach.
It is hard to imagine that only a year ago, Gou clandestinely met with Hou before the local elections last November, the two reportedly promising each other that neither would enter the race while the other ran, publicly displaying cordiality and support.
Unfortunately, the comraderie began showing cracks when last November’s local elections saw the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffer its biggest Waterloo in history. Galvanized by its own sweeping victory, the KMT swore to put an end to DPP governance, and its presidential candidate nomination soon became the most sought-after golden ticket in the party. Rivalry between Gou and Hou spiraled into rift and then enmity, sending the KMT into disarray.
It seems that the KMT has always struggled with unity and solidarity, so much so that the phrases were heard at every campaign event like a broken record, which begs the question: why is the KMT struggling with unity more than any other party?
The first reason stems from party regulations. As a Leninist-style party, the chairman is in command, and in this case, it is KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) who has the power to set rules for the primaries as he sees fit. This has been the reason why party members and supporters accused Chu of adopting “black box” tactics when he withheld information about the screening method up until the moment of candidate announcement. As a result, his overwhelming role in the nomination has singlehandedly caused Gou and Hou’s fallout and the break up of the pan-blue base.
If the KMT wishes to rectify the overconcentration of power in the hands of its chairman, it could introduce further democratization and power to its policymaking units like the Central Standing Committee and the Central Executive Committee. Old party members and KMT elites continuing to occupy the higher positions while few young people wish to join the party has resulted in the party’s higher echelons being out of touch with the people.
The second is that the KMT lacks vision. Although abstract, vision is the key that drives people’s passion and their motive to get up and vote. For the DPP, its party vision has been simple: to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, and counter Chinese aggression.
For the KMT, it is a bit more complicated. To say that the KMT is a party made up of 50 shades of blue is no exaggeration. Each faction in the party is working for a different goal. For example, the pro-China faction wants unification with China; the deep-blue faction wishes to see the DPP’s collapse and a return to the good old days; the KMT’s local factions only wish to ensure they get more local support than the DPP.
This disarray has always been the KMT’s biggest hurdle. Its lack of vision has given the TPP, or independent candidates, such as Gou, a chance to rise. Its appeal to the public to “vote the DPP out of office” has turned its presidential candidate into a placeholder: Hou can be substituted by Gou or Ko, as long as the candidate stands the most chance of defeating DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德).
As past elections have proven, solidarity has never been the KMT’s strongest suit; the presidential campaign this year might yet prove that weakness to be the reason for its downfall.
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