One of the decisive forces in the legislative election may be the newly-formed Non-Partisan Soli-darity Union (NPSU, 無黨團結聯盟), and yet the party is a motley crew of candidates who have little in common. About the only thing that does unite the candidates is that they don't know much about what the party is doing, and they don't really care.
The candidates seldom meet with the party's leader, and there is no joint campaign or common strategy. All of which poses the question of whether the union is really a party at all.
Next month's legislative elections are ones in which the candidates in the south have avoided highlighting their party orientation, and instead stressed their personal image.
But the newly-formed NPSU, suffering from its novelty and lack of a central ideology, has been especially weak in presenting a comprehensive and coherent impression of the party. Most of its candidates are selling their own personal qualities instead of party affiliation.
The better-known NPSU candidates include Aboriginal Legislator May Chin (
One NPSU candidate, who wished to remain unidentified, said bluntly that he did not have close ties with the party headquarters.
"I do not interact with the party very much, and I have never met the chairwoman Chang Po-ya (
When asked about whether the candidate was familiar with the NPSU's legislators-at-large, the candidate was nonplussed.
"There should be some out there," the candidate said.
Steven Huang (
"But I don't understand what the NPSU is doing either," Huang said, sounding as if he wasn't even an NPSU candidate.
Huang is holding strong in the campaign not because he is an NPSU member, but because he comes from a family with strong political support.
"The party has the chance to compete with the Taiwan Solidarity Union, but I don't understand how the NPSU operates either," he said.
Huang said that he did not know where the NPSU headquarters was, and he only met the chairwoman once or twice.
Huang said he became a NPSU member because of NPSU legislative caucus whip Tsai Hao's (
But Tsai told Huang that if he was elected from the NPSU, he would be much more influential, since the NPSU is likely to become a decisive minority in the legislature.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large Lee Ho-shun (
But he has been perplexed about his new party, and hasn't benefited from his membership.
"For the legislative election, the important thing is whether you will support your local constituents, how you present yourself and whether you serve the constituency well," Lee said.
He said that he joined the NPSU because it couldn't hurt.
"It is freer here," Lee said. "I care more about serving my constituency. I don't want to get involved in party and faction conflicts."
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS