Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Shu-po (許舒博) yesterday criticized the party’s handling of internal discontent, one day after former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) called for party members to “set aside discontent for the greater good” ahead of the January elections.
“It’s not just a few people who are disgruntled, it’s a whole bunch of people,” Hsu said, adding that the source of that anger was the impression among party members that the KMT was not fully committed to them.
“Without consideration and commitment [to party members], there can be no party spirit,” Hsu said.
The KMT nominee for the second electoral district in Yunlin, Hsu said he still had reservations about his nomination and did not attend the KMT party congress on Friday.
Hsu said he did not feel the party was fully committed to him, adding that that was the reason why his father, former Yunlin County commissioner Hsu Wen-chi (許文志), did not want him to take part in the election.
Hsu Shu-po said his father was loathe to see his son participate in “an election with no guarantees.”
Even though President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) telephoned Hsu Wen-chi to discuss the matter, the younger Hsu said that only if Ma visited his father during his visit to Yunlin on Sunday and secured his approval would he be able to engage fully in party affairs.
During an interview on Friday, Hsu Shu-po expressed doubts as to whether KMT campaign strategist King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) had an accurate grasp of the local sentiment in more rural areas, adding that he had never heard of King visiting rural areas.
King does not understand “southern flavor,” Hsu said, adding that despite announcing its determination to make central Taiwan the key battlefield during the election, execution of that strategy so far lacked strength and didn’t quite “scratch the itch.”
Voters in central and southern parts of the country are different from those in the north, Hsu Shu-po said, adding that the KMT needed someone who knew how to “talk to people” in the south, not just blindly replicate approaches that had proved successful in the north.
“Appoint me as the Ma campaign office’s southern spokesperson,” Hsu Shu-po said, describing himself as a candidate who knew how to “use the right people and do the right things, in the right way.”
In a special statement issued through Ma’s campaign office, King said he hoped Hsu Shu-po would take the larger picture into consideration and not resort to party infighting.
During an interview yesterday, Hsu Shu-po used the analogy of a dragon boat race to describe the organizational approach of the upcoming campaign.
Ma is the flag grabber, Premier and vice presidential candidate Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is the drum beater, and the legislative candidates are the rowers, he said, adding that the most important position on any dragon-boat is the person holding the rudder.
The current rudder man does not know how to steer, Hsu Shu-po said, adding that since they were still four or five people short of a full boat, the rudder man should also take turns rowing the boat himself.
“I should only have to expend 30 percent of my energy during the election, but now I find I have to give everything I have, with zero guarantee of getting anything back in return, however hard I work,” Hsu Shu-po said.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS