Tue, Nov 16, 1999 page3

• James Soong's days in KMT numbered, say analysts

  PARTY STRIFE The president has again launched an attack against James Soong, and its timing, scholars say, signifies that his expulsion from the KMT is imminent

  • By Oliver Lin / STAFF REPORTER
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  President and KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) reiterated his hard-line stance against maverick presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), coinciding with the Central Election Committee's formal announcement of a start to next year's presidential election campaign.

  The KMT's evaluation and discipline committee confirmed yesterday that it is to meet this afternoon to discuss Soong's expulsion, and its recommendation to do so is to be approved by the KMT's central standing committee tomorrow.

  Soong's expulsion was originally to have been decided at a senior KMT meeting scheduled on Sept. 21 -- the same day that a deadly earthquake struck Taiwan.

  However, Lee's attacks on Soong's presidential ambitions began before that, with accusations that Soong had squandered taxpayers' money on "local construction projects" to buy the hearts of voters when he served as provincial governor.

  In what has become almost a ritual, Lee again showered words of assault upon Soong yesterday -- without actually mentioning his name.

  Lee told his party leaders yesterday: "We are faced with opposition parties' competition from the outside and we are confronted by party dissidents (-I離份?l) from within, who are calculating how to take this party and make it their own."

  "We have to defeat those dissidents who are trying every way possible to split the party and use mere lip service to cheat ordinary people."

  "During the last decade, our efforts have brought a high level of democracy. We have built a party political system. This fruit [of our labor] has to be consolidated, because if the basis of party politics is ruined, our 10 years of effort will be wasted; Taiwan's quest for democracy will be smashed; the times will revert to authoritarian rule. If this happens, it will be a sad day for Taiwan's political development," Lee said.

  Lee was apparently referring to Soong, who, running as an independent, has been promoting non-party politics, attempting to convince voters that a presidential candidate without a party affiliation would be better for Taiwan's future.

  Having already plunged deeply into the presidential campaign, Soong has not taken the initiative to quit his party. If he is expelled, his heart "will still be with the KMT," he said last week.

  As was the case after Lee's last verbal pounding, Soong's supporters resisted the temptation to launch a counterattack. Chin Jin-sheng (?金生), Soong's spokesman, declined to make a response yesterday.

  Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), one of Soong's campaign managers, said his camp was keeping a low profile and was unwilling to react to attacks. Despite the criticisms, Soong is enjoying high popularity, and his camp does not want to appear as belligerent, he reasoned.

  But the reason for Soong's cautious approach could be that Lee -- the first native Taiwanese president -- still enjoys a certain degree of respect among the electorate, and Soong's camp does not want to scare these potential supporters away, analysts said.

  Liu Wen-hsiung (劉?撊?/CHINESE>), a KMT legislator who overtly supports Soong, was more blunt: "Lee's criticism shows that the KMT lacks the capability to examine itself. They should be asking why people want to leave the party."

  But Lee's attack should be seen as an imminent announcement before his party takes action to expel Soong, analysts said.

  "It is in line with the KMT's policy to make declarations before real actions," Lin Jih-wen (林繼??, an assistant research fellow at the Academia Sinica, said.

  "But Taiwan should be mature enough not to revert to authoritarian rule," he said.
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