Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center president Tang Kuo-tai (唐國泰) on Thursday at a forum in Taichung criticized the four candidates running for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson as unsuitable to lead the party in a rapidly changing society that is constantly connected to the Internet due to their outdated modes of thought.
Other attendees chastised the party overall for the lack of systems in place to groom future talent and the over-centralization of the decisionmaking process.
Tang, one of the moderators at the Open KMT forum, said the four candidates still adhere to the old ways of thinking, adding that the party could have used the Internet to choose its candidate by popular vote using Facebook’s “like” function and conduct online debates, instead of basing its candidature on who could afford to fund their own candidacy.
Taiwan is past the development stage for light and heavy industries, and is now entering the Internet age, and the KMT-led government has been voted out because it has not satisfied people’s desire for change, Tang said.
Tang said the KMT’s claims it listens to young people was at best a charade, as the Youth League is only a third-rate organization within the party.
In terms of structure, Tang criticized the KMT for becoming too centralized under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when he was KMT chairman and said the party could learn from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which delegated power to eight different policy divisions under the leadership of DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Tang said he hoped whoever wins the KMT chairperson election next Saturday would embrace a more modern mindset that would connect the party with a society that has embraced the Internet.
KMT Changhua County Councilor Tsao Chia-hao (曹嘉豪) said the party lacks the ability or systems to mentor its younger members and the deficiency is telling in light of the KMT’s defeat in the presidential and legislative elections on Jan 16.
Reforms must be enacted, Tsao said, adding that it should not be in the form of putting younger party members in front-line positions just yet.
The party should look toward devising a complete system that would enable them to educate more young people in the matters of politics, Tsao said.
Placed in positions as aides to watch and learn, the party could groom younger members to eventually take over positions in their specialized areas, Tsao said.
He said the party needs to work on finding common ground on which all its members agreed or else the party would continue to fragment.
One of the Open KMT forum instigators, Chu Huan-jui (屈環瑞), criticized the Youth League for being detached from society, adding that the league has done nothing since Jan. 16.
Only by encouraging young people who are willing to help reform the party would the KMT truly hear what the younger generation are saying, he said.
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