Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday said that he hopes the party’s Institute of Revolutionary Practice could become an “important cradle” for attracting and cultivating party talent.
“Although the KMT is poor, it cannot be poor in the area of cultivating talent because talent and discourse are the KMT’s most important assets in the future,” Chiang said at a news conference at the party’s Taipei headquarters to mark Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) taking over as the institute’s new director, along with deputy directors Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) and Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪).
The party must show the public through action, not just words, that it wants to develop new talent, he added.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lo outlined his three major policies for the institute, which has reverted to its original name from the National Development Institute.
He said that he would not take a salary for being its director, although Chiang had told him that the job was an “obligatory post” that came without pay when he offered it to him.
“The KMT is at a historic low point,” Lo said. “The institute has no money and neither does the KMT.”
Lo said he would keep the promise that he made on Jan. 12, the day after the presidential and legislative elections, to donate NT$800,000 (US$26,532) to the KMT’s youth development work once a new party chairperson was elected.
The donation would be made to the institute to help pay its expenses, he said.
Furthermore, the institute is to launch a NT$10 million fundraising drive, he said, adding that details would be released as soon as possible.
While NT$10 million is a small sum for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose resources are “endless,” it is an “astronomical amount” for the KMT, he added.
For decades the KMT had a reputation as one of the wealthiest political parties in the world.
In July 2018, Ministry of Interior data showed that the KMT had assets totaling NT$18.9 billion (US$626.82 million), while the DPP had assets worth NT$769 million, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported.
However, on Dec. 6 last year, the KMT said it was struggling to pay staff, due to an asset freeze imposed by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee.
The committee said that the KMT had income of NT$420 million in 2018 that had not been frozen.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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