Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should abandon KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) aggressive policy line and cooperate with the ruling party, political observers said yesterday.
"In a bid to marginalize the Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (王金平) influence in the legislature, Ma would have more leverage if he talks directly with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration instead of letting Wang deal with them the way Lien did," said Academia Sinica political analyst Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明).
If Wang, a follower of Lien's bellicose policy line, opts to defy the more reconciliatory approach, Hsu said he may find himself in a awkward position and face backlash from both his own party and DPP.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Because Ma has set his eyes on the next presidential election, in addition to adopting a more reconciliatory approach, Hsu said, Ma's cross-strait policy might deviate from Lien's pro-Beijing stance in a bid to court middle-of-the-road voters.
Ma might not place too much emphasis on the cross-strait issue, however, because he is smart enough to leave that thorny issue to Lien, who is posed to be made honorary KMT chairman.
It is possible that Ma will appoint one of his own people to be executive director of the party's Central Policy Committee to replace Legislator Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), who enjoys close ties with Wang.
Although an immediate stalemate is expected between Ma and Wang, Hsu said that he doubts Wang will gain more momentum in the legislature because KMT lawmakers cannot afford to develop bad relations with Ma ahead of the 2007 legislative election.
Wang Yeh-li (王業立), a political science professor at Tunghai University, agreed with Hsu that Ma may gain more support from KMT lawmakers because they are desperate for his endorsement for the 2007 poll.
Although he expects to see incoherence in party polices and even conflicts between Ma and Wang Jin-pyng in the near future, Wang Yeh-li said that the phenomenon is only natural because when Chen was elected DPP chairman, he ran into the same problems.
The Tunghai professor, however, said he's not too concerned about the relationship between Ma and his defeated rival, nor does he foresee the two men competing to dominate the legislature because Ma desperately needs Wang Jin-pyng's assistance in the bear pit.
"The ball is in Ma's court," he said. "The future relationship between the two hinges on how Ma mends fences with Wang Jin-pyng and on whether the DPP will take advantage of the opportunity this presents to divide its arch political rival."
He disagrees with Hsu that Ma will change the KMT's tactics toward reconciling and cooperating with the DPP administration.
"The job for an opposition party, after all, is to supervise and compete with the government, not to cooperate with it," he said.
Since it is unlikely that Ma will change Lien's policy line, he said, Ma might want Tseng to continue to serve as a bridge between KMT headquarters and the legislature.
It may take a while, though, for Wang Jin-pyng to warm up to Ma, given the rifts between them during the campaign and the extent of Wang's embarrassing defeat, including on his own home turf.
While Ma has said he sincerely wants to mend fences with his rival, it still remains to be seen as whether the legislative speaker will let bygones be bygones, as he said he would ahead of Saturday's poll.
If Ma manages to win the speaker's trust and support, they would make a formidable pair to challenge the DPP's candidates in the next presidential election.
"Judging from Ma's popularity, Soong is definitely out of the picture," Wang Yeh-li said.
The KMT's nomination process for presidental and vice presidental candidates requires the endorsement of 50 percent of its members and a 50 percent approval rating from opinion polls.
To prevent being embarrassed by questions after the KMT election, both Lien and Soong distanced themselves by going on overseas trips.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
RSS