Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson candidate Lee Hsin (李新) yesterday pledged to welcome back all former KMT members that have been expelled if elected party chair, saying that is the only way to salvage the KMT.
Lee made the promise one day after the party’s Central Standing Committee approved the expulsion of 27 KMT members and the revocation of 18 party memberships.
Forty-three of them were disciplined due to their conduct during January’s presidential and legislative elections, including 10 members who ran under other parties’ banners and 31 who campaigned for non-KMT candidates.
According to KMT regulations, party members who are expelled or have their membership revoked cannot return to the party until after the statutory periods of six years and three years respectively.
“If elected KMT chairperson, I plan to redress all cases of cast-out party members and welcome them back to the KMT, except for those who were expelled for committing reprehensible crimes,” Lee said.
Lee said doing so would be the KMT’s only hope of recovery, but expressed concern that many of the party’s former members might refuse to rejoin the party even if allowed back.
Blasting what he described as the KMT’s culture of nepotism, Lee said all KMT staff should start at the local level and that only those who have delivered stellar performances should be given a position at party headquarters.
“Rookie KMT members wishing to run for a city or county councilor seat in the 2018 local elections should start with an assistant job, while the party’s city mayor and county commissioners candidates should be selected from incumbent city or county councilors,” Lee said.
Also, it should be a requirement that the KMT’s regional legislative and legislator-at-large candidates in the 2020 race have first served as city or county councilors, Lee said.
Lee went on to urge the KMT to make an effort to “educate and cultivate their own children,” rather than simply recruiting talent outside the party to join elections.
Lee Hsin said the KMT’s current staffing culture had resulted in politicians such as former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) and former KMT Youth League secretary-general Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓).
Lin was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison last month for accepting bribes, while Lee Zheng-hao has been embroiled in a sex tape scandal since allegations emerged earlier last month that he had secretly recorded bedroom trysts with many women.
“On the other hand, many young members of the Democratic Progressive Party have made their way up from the very bottom, from assistants, city or county councilors to legislators and mayors or county commissioners,” Lee Hsin said.
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