Tue, Jun 15, 2004 page3

• Anxiety in the KMT grassroots runs deep

  CAUGHT IN BETWEEN Lien Chan is trying to drum up support for merging with the PFP, but many local KMT leaders feel that would only strengthen support for the pan-greens

  • By Huang Tai-lin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Despite the launch of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) "thanksgiving tour" this weekend as part of an effort to gain supporters for his proposed merger with the People First Party (PFP), disapproval and hesitancy still linger in the KMT grassroots -- especially in central and southern Taiwan.

  "I am against the merger," said Lin Po-lun (林伯崙), a KMT vote captain (樁腳) in Kaohsiung.

  "Vote captain" is a term used to describe influential local personalities who are capable of gathering votes for candidates.

  "The reason I'm against it is that people in southern Taiwan generally do not have a good impression of Mainlanders," Lin said, referring to the widespread impression of the PFP as a "Mainlander party."

  PFP members have strongly disputed this characterization.

  The PFP's perceived aggressiveness is another reason that many grassroots KMT members find the merger proposal unattractive, said a grassroots KMT supporter surnamed Chen.

  "The KMT is a party of mo-desty," said Chen, a resident of Kaohsiung City.

  "The PFP has left us with the impression of being belligerent and aggressive, which we do not like," Chen said.

  Chen's remarks echo those of KMT Legislator Tseng Tsai Mei-tsuo (曾蔡美佐), who said that cantankerous behavior displayed by PFP legislators has turned off many grassroots KMT supporters.

  "Believing that the KMT should uphold an image of being rational and moderate, many grassroots supporters find the PFP's actions unacceptable," said Tseng Tsai, who represents a constituency in Yunlin County.

  Tseng Tsai was referring to behavior such as that displayed by PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) on election night.

  Outraged by the results of the presidential election -- in which Lien, running on a ticket with his PFP counterpart James Soong (宋楚瑜), lost to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) by a margin of less than 30,000 votes -- Chiu stood atop a truck in Kaohsiung and led a crowd in attacking police officers with rocks, sticks and bricks and breaking into the Kaohsiung District Court.

  Meanwhile, PFP Legislator Shen Chih-hui (沈智慧) led a crowd in Taichung to the Taichung District Court and attempted to break into the office.

  On the Friday following the election, PFP Legislators Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國) led supporters in a violent rampage outside the Central Election Commission as commission officials were attempting to post an announcement declaring Chen the official winner of the election.

  "[The Taipei demonstrations] definitely had a strong effect -- in an unfavorable way -- on locals' impressions of the PFP," said Tseng Tsai, referring to the series of street demonstrations that the KMT-PFP alliance, in its attempt to challenge the result of the election, staged in front of the Presidential Office in the weeks following the voting.

  One demonstration in particular left a bad impression: the one on April 10, which turned ugly and violent as some protesters refused to leave the protest site when the event's permit expired.

  Clashes broke out between riot police and angry demonstrators, resulting in injuries to 127 people, including 86 police officers, 27 protesters and 14 reporters, according to Taipei police.

  It was noticeable that among the pan-blue politicians who addressed the protesters at the protest venues, PFP legislators spent noticeably more time behind the microphone than did KMT figures.

  The KMT's pro-localization members kept a comparatively low profile throughout the events.

  Some KMT legislators, particularly those representing the nation's central and southern constituencies, questioned the wisdom of holding street demonstrations.

  Tseng Tsai said that the KMT had in recent years transformed its public image from one strongly associated with Mainlanders into one that now, as a result of the party's cultivating younger Taiwanese politicians, seems more in touch with the nation and its people.

  "Many grassroots leaders have expressed concern that the KMT might be again become `Mainlander-ized' or 'PFP-ized' should it merge with the PFP," Tseng Tsai said of the doubts harbored by a large segment of grassroots KMT supporters.

  Soong formed the PFP after his failed campaign during the presidential race in 2000.

  "The PFP then broke away from the KMT because of ideolo-gical differences," Tseng Tsai said.

  "The PFP needs to make clear the reasons that it now wants to rejoin the KMT," he said.

  Chiu Teh-hung (邱德宏), organizer of a group of young KMT members that calls itself the Blue Eagle Warriors (藍鷹戰將), said the KMT, with December legislative elections approaching, "is now faced with internal worry and exterior competition."

  Chiu said the phrase "exterior competition" is easy to understand, as it refers to the KMT's political rivals in the pan-green camp, and that "interior worry" refers to the KMT's concerns about the PFP's ambitions.

  Chiu said that the PFP, via its high-profile protests against the Chen Shui-bian administration, had left vast numbers of pan-blue supporters with the impression that it is overly combative -- but that it has consequently attracted support from so-called "deep blues."

  "With its deep-blue supporters running off to the PFP and its moderate voters drifting to the pan-green camp as result of moderates' disapproval of the street protests, how much support will the KMT be able to draw on in the year-end legislative elections?" said Chiu, who is also the chief of staff for the vice speaker of the Miaoli County Council.

  Echoing Chiu's comments, KMT Legislator Chang Chang-tsai (張昌財) said "the KMT needs to understand that it has entered a crisis."

  Taiwan Solidarity Union legislative leader Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said that while the KMT is embroiled in internal disputes, the PFP is setting its sights on doing well in the December elections and becoming the nation's No. 1 opposition party.

  "If the KMT lowers its guard, it could get beaten by the PFP [in the December elections]," Chen Chien-ming said.
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