Wed, Mar 03, 2010 page3

• Ma, KMT aim to cultivate talent

  REFORM INITIATIVE Officials within the party said that while they had expected to lose Hsinchu in Saturday’s by-election, they had hoped to keep Taoyuan along with Hualien

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, yesterday vowed to persist with the party’s reform initiative despite the KMT’s loss in Saturday’s legislative by-­elections, saying it played a significant role in its election defeat.

  Saying there was room for improvement in “party affairs” and “government affairs,” Ma said that statistics have shown the economy is picking up and the administration must make an extra effort to win the support of the people.

  Ma also urged the party to cultivate and train more talent for future elections, which KMT ­Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said should also apply to the special ­municipality elections in December.

  

  Political commentator Nan Fang Shuo, second right, appears at an event in Taipei ­yesterday. The Presidential Office yesterday reacted to Nan Fang Shuo’s recent criticism of the president.

  PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

  Ma and King made the remarks during the party’s Zhongshan meeting yesterday afternoon where Ma heard party chiefs report on the losses in Saturday’s legislative by-elections. The KMT lost Taoyuan, Hsinchu and ­Chiayi in the four elections, securing only one seat, in Hualien.

  Hualien party bosses said the party must develop a long-term program to cultivate talent. He said the party was bound to face a tougher challenge next time around if it failed to do so. Ma said they had hoped to keep ­Taoyuan and Hualien, but unfortunately lost Taoyuan. He vowed, however, to continue the reform initiative, saying the party would insist on nominating only clean and honest candidates and nurture more talent as soon as possible.

  King also said they had hoped to secure Taoyuan and Hualien, and they knew they were likely to lose Hsinchu. As for Chiayi, King said, they must step up efforts to garner more support for the party because some polls suggested that support for the party’s candidate in the college age group soared by 10 percent in the run-up to the elections.

  The Chiayi party chief said the KMT candidate spent only 14 days campaigning, although he had 47 days to do so. Local factions were not as united as before and middle-class supporters did not turn out to vote, he said, adding that the party must also seek the support of swing voters. He said that as state funding was controlled by the county government governed by the Democratic Progressive Party, it created the impression that the KMT administration was not doing its job.

  Taoyuan party chiefs said that although the party’s candidate was a good choice, it should have nominated him earlier. Had the nomination been finalized one or two weeks earlier, the prospect of winning would have been better, he said.

  Hsinchu party chiefs blamed the downfall on the party’s failure to obtain the support of local factions. Although the party seemed to achieve the goal on the surface, it neglected a possible backlash from grassroots supporters, he said.

  Meanwhile, KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday thanked political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) and three others for writing an open letter to Ma urging him to push reform.

  Su said that while the recommendations sounded “rational,” he found it unacceptable when Nan Fang Shuo accused Ma of “knowing all about grandstanding and nothing about running the country.”

  “It is totally untrue,” Su said.

  Nan Fang Shuo also said that Ma was unlikely to be elected in 2012 if the KMT lost the municipal ­elections in December.

  Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said he respected Nan Fang Shuo’s views, but he hoped all criticism lodged against the president would take into consideration the many achievements made over the past 20 months.

  While Ma met Nan Fang Shuo the last time he publicly criticized Ma, Lo said the president had no immediate plans to do so this time. The president would, however, be happy to listen to different voices, both publicly and privately, Lo said.
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