The recent political wrangling between Chinese National Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
The KMT's big win in last December's local three-in-one election, which ignited a wave of defection of PFP legislators and city councilors to the KMT, has cast a shadow over any future KMT-PFP cooperation.
Ma's two-handed strategy in dealing with Soong -- as manifested by the KMT's gradual assimilation of PFP's constituency while maintaining an image of a united pan-blue front -- arises from the KMT's need of the PFP's 20 seats in the Legislative Yuan to form an absolute majority to counteract the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
Refusing to be labeled a political "has-been," Soong took advantage of Ma's moderate approach to move back into the public eye by proposing a series of radical measures to ride on public anger over corruption scandals relating to President Chen Shui-bian's (
While the PFP's extremist appeal to recall the president in June failed, it has successfully drawn media attention and put Soong back in the spotlight.
Ma, meanwhile, has chosen to maintain a cautious stance and sought to keep a distance between his party and Soong and the PFP.
When the results of the month-long anti-Chen movement initiated by former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) ironically led to declining support for the KMT's mayoral candidates in Taipei and Kaohsiung cities, Soong saw his opportunity and announced his bid for the Taipei mayoral seat despite the fact that the KMT has already nominated its own candidate, Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
In an effort to prevent a repeat of the 1994 Taipei mayoral election, when two pan-blue candidates split the vote, giving the then-DPP-candidate Chen Shui-bian a surprise victory, the KMT had been negotiating with the PFP, hoping to dissuade Soong from competing with Hau -- apparently to no avail.
Soong has two objectives in running: preserving the PFP's influence and raising his own political stake, giving him more bargaining chips in future negotiations with Ma. Soong's candidacy has had a direct impact on Hau, who has seen his poll ratings drop following the announcement.
Ma's disclosure of his secret meetings with Soong and the PFP chairman's alleged demand that Hau withdraw from the race as a condition for future KMT-PFP cooperation last Friday was a manifestation of a "marriage of inconvenience" between Ma and Soong.
Not only do the two lack sincerity and depth in their commitment to such a cooperation, but both parties used the meetings to further their own goals.
Soong needed new forces to unleash the internal pressures that are threatening to break up the PFP.
Ma, meanwhile, used a proposed cooperation between the two parties to further secure his leadership within the pan-blue camp. Adopting the "good cop" strategy, Ma said he would like to demonstrate the "maximum sincerity and the greatest goodwill" to pursue cooperation with the PFP, while at the same time trying his best to "steal" PFP seats in the legislature.
Ma need not make any concrete offers because all he wants is to build up an "image" of pan-blue unity. As such, he is unlikely to accept any preconditions from Soong.
Nevertheless, given the PFP's remaining influence in the legislature, Ma cannot escape being held hostage by the PFP on issues relating to the arms budget and bills to review the KMT's ill-gotten wealth.
Given these internal contradictions, a KMT-PFP cooperation is not only politically impractical but unworkable. Failures to solve divergent interests and reach an inter-party consensus, and the incapability to work out an objective for future development constitute main obstacles toward a team-up of the KMT and the PFP.
Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
US$18.278 billion is a simple dollar figure; one that’s illustrative of the first Trump administration’s defense commitment to Taiwan. But what does Donald Trump care for money? During President Trump’s first term, the US defense department approved gross sales of “defense articles and services” to Taiwan of over US$18 billion. In September, the US-Taiwan Business Council compared Trump’s figure to the other four presidential administrations since 1993: President Clinton approved a total of US$8.702 billion from 1993 through 2000. President George W. Bush approved US$15.614 billion in eight years. This total would have been significantly greater had Taiwan’s Kuomintang-controlled Legislative Yuan been cooperative. During
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on Monday unilaterally passed a preliminary review of proposed amendments to the Public Officers Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) in just one minute, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, government officials and the media were locked out. The hasty and discourteous move — the doors of the Internal Administration Committee chamber were locked and sealed with plastic wrap before the preliminary review meeting began — was a great setback for Taiwan’s democracy. Without any legislative discussion or public witnesses, KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), the committee’s convener, began the meeting at 9am and announced passage of the
In response to a failure to understand the “good intentions” behind the use of the term “motherland,” a professor from China’s Fudan University recklessly claimed that Taiwan used to be a colony, so all it needs is a “good beating.” Such logic is risible. The Central Plains people in China were once colonized by the Mongolians, the Manchus and other foreign peoples — does that mean they also deserve a “good beating?” According to the professor, having been ruled by the Cheng Dynasty — named after its founder, Ming-loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga) — as the Kingdom of Tungning,
RSS