Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members yesterday called for reform of the soon-to-be opposition party following its landslide loss in Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.
“KMT leadership must refrain from paying lip service to party reform. If the party intends to usher in reform, it should start by revising rules regarding its chairmanship election,” former KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said on Facebook.
Yang said the KMT should allow any party member to vie for the chairmanship and significantly lower the hefty NT$2 million (US$59,140) deposit that each candidate for the position is required to pay.
Under the KMT’s charter, only party members who have served as members of the party’s Central Advisory Committee or Central Committee and have managed to obtain the endorsement of 3 percent of all party members are allowed to enter a chairmanship election.
Yang also said that at least one televised debate and policy presentation should be held for candidates.
“By reforming the party’s chairmanship election, the KMT would be able to deepen democracy within the party, expand grassroots participation and take a first step toward eradicating party bigwigs’ dominance,” Yang said.
It would also serve to measure KMT heavyweights’ willingness to introduce reform, he added.
Yang tendered his resignation as the KMT’s spokesman on Saturday after saying on Facebook the day before that Taiwanese would always be perceived as pro-independence activists in the eyes of China, regardless of how many concessions the nation makes.
On the same day, defeated KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced in his concession speech that he was to step down as party chairman to take responsibility for the KMT’s disastrous defeat in the elections.
Meanwhile, KMT Youth League Secretary-General Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) also took to Facebook to urge party leadership to undergo reform.
“Many people, including myself, have proposed reforms after Saturday’s elections, such as encouraging young people to join the KMT, making the party’s organization more horizontal and taking a more Taiwan-centric path,” Lee wrote.
However, Lee said that what he cared about most was whether party leadership is willing to divest itself of all its contentious assets, which he said have become a “political liability” for the party.
“The KMT can only call itself a party for the people when the public is willing to entrust just one dollar to the party because they believe even one dollar means something to the party and that it would maximize that money,” Lee said.
KMT International Information and Events Center director Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), who had served as Chu’s campaign spokesperson, on Saturday urged the party to take off its suit and put on straw sandals to “truly feel the temperature the people feel.”
“In order for the KMT to once again become a party worthy of voters’ trust four years from now, everyone should put aside their personal agendas and engage in rational debate on the party’s future policies and direction,” Hsu said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS