Two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday denied a report that lawmakers from central and southern Taiwan were organizing a group to express their dissatisfaction with the party’s power hierarchy.
When asked for comment, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said she and 14 other legislators had only organized a “lunch club,” not a clique.
“Everyone is welcome to have lunch with us on Mondays if they have something they would like to express,” Huang said.
KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) also dismissed the story, saying they had not formed a group to promote their own interests.
Shyu said they only wanted to introduce different opinions into the party.
The legislators’ remarks came in response to a report by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that 15 KMT lawmakers from central and southern Taiwan were forming a group to jointly express their opinions to party headquarters, the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office.
The report said the lawmakers were unhappy that the channels for communication with party headquarters, the Cabinet and the Presidential Office had been “monopolized by a small number of people.”
It said that Huang, Shyu and KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) would serve as leaders of the new group.
The report also quoted KMT Legislator Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田) as saying that they were needed to reflect the voice of the nation’s “agricultural” regions.
However, such an organization would be a violation of the party’s ban on factions. KMT headquarters imposed the ban in January last year after the party won three-quarters of the legislative seats.
Asked for comment, KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said he opposed sub-groups within the party.
KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said since the party had promised the public that the KMT would not be controlled by different factions, the party should keep its promise.
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