Amid her party’s worsening financial predicament, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) is reportedly planning to make public a list of members of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee who have failed to raise a stipulated amount of money.
In order to assuage the KMT’s financial concerns, the committee in October last year passed a motion requiring members of the Central Standing Committee and the Central Committee to raise NT$1 million and NT$100,000 (US$31,460 and US$3,146) per person per year respectively.
However, so far, only three of the 32 Central Standing Committee members have been cooperative, which Hung said forced her to constantly remind the noncompliant members of their duty at committee meetings and even recently threatened to release their names.
As the deadline for meeting the fundraising quotas is on the end of June, the list is expected to be released in July at the earliest.
Given that Hung’s current term as chairperson will not expire until Aug 20, she can still exert clout on both Central Committee and Central Standing Committee members, as new members are due to be elected on July 8 and July 29 respectively.
According to a KMT member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the publication of a list of uncooperative members would have only a limited effect on encouraging committee members to fulfill their obligation.
The member attributed the under-performance to the removal of a clause in a Central Standing Committee motion stating that members of both committees who fail to reach the goal would have their party rights suspended until the goal is met.
As for the reasons for some committee members’ noncompliance, the KMT member said that in addition to their reluctance to ask for money, which was triggered by a lack of fundraising pressure on party members in the past, another factor is their anti-Hung sentiment.
The member cited as an example requests by Central Standing Committee members who have managed to raise NT$1 million that the money can only be used by local party branches, which is perceived by some as an attempt to prevent Hung and the KMT headquarters from tapping into the fund.
Many Central Standing Committee members and KMT lawmakers — who are required to raise NT$300,000 to NT$500,000 a year — have reportedly determined to wait until the party’s next election for a chairperson, scheduled for May 20, to decide whether to fulfill their fundraising duty.
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