Media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong’s (趙少康) request to return to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been approved, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday, adding that Jaw would be appointed to the party’s Central Advisory Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Jaw on Monday announced that he had submitted an application to restore his membership in the party, and that he did not rule out entering the race for KMT chairperson.
“Mr Jaw’s return to the KMT at this time will certainly help to strengthen the KMT’s power, social support and influence,” Chiang said in a statement.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It is also deeply meaningful for the unity of pan-blue forces,” he said, adding that he welcomed the development.
Chiang said that the party had already planned to nominate additional members to its Central Advisory Committee to give the party guidance on policies and help direct it after the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year runs from Wednesday next week to Feb. 16.
Chiang would include Jaw in a list of appointees to be released after the holiday, he said, citing Jaw’s “extensive political experience and social influence.”
Chiang expressed the hope that Jaw’s appointment would boost the KMT’s supporter base, saying that he welcomes others to “return to the KMT family.”
The chairperson’s role is to “selflessly unite all supporting forces,” Chiang said, adding that he looks forward to more people with like views being attracted to join the party.
Jaw, who hosts several political talk shows, formerly served as a legislator, a Taipei city councilor and head of the Environmental Protection Administration.
Jaw cofounded the New Party, but retired from politics after losing the Taipei mayoral race to then-Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 1994.
“It is always delightful when old friends come home,” Chiang told yesterday’s final meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee before the Lunar New Year holiday.
“We must expand the KMT’s social support and not only unite all those who can be united, but also unite under a system to allow the KMT to operate sustainably” he said.
The party’s chairperson by-election last year required candidates to qualify as voters and to have been KMT members for at least one year, but the chair election rules do not require membership of more than one year, but only that candidates be members who have in the past served on the Central Advisory Committee or the Central Standing Committee.
Jaw told reporters in Taipei yesterday that if he does not qualify for this year’s KMT chairperson election, he was unlikely to run in the next chairperson election.
Additional reporting by CNA
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