As next year's presidential election approaches, the nation's two biggest political parties are faced with the difficult task of having to select tickets that would give them the greatest chance of winning the presidency.
The importance of the upcoming presidential election for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is without question.
For the DPP, winning this election will help salvage the party from the past year's slump, during which its top figures, including President Chen Shui-bian (
As for the KMT, after losing the previous two presidential elections, it cannot wait to reclaim the presidency and enjoy the sweet taste of political victory.
Both parties have mechanisms for the primaries through which -- in theory at least -- the best candidates will be elected through a combination of ballots cast by party members and public opinion polls. While this process seems straightforward and in conformity with the fundamentals of democracy, it has some fatal flaws.
This explains why, before the primaries have even been held, both parties have decided to resort to negotiations among the contenders to decide who should be nominated. The biggest flaw in that approach is that the attendant party infighting could split them.
When it comes to the consequences of such splits, the KMT probably has the most painful experience -- notably the 2000 presidential election. The KMT's votes were divided between the party's nominated candidate -- Lien Chan (
Life, however, has its many ironies. In light of the standoff between former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Although Wang has more seniority than Ma in the party, Ma's popularity made it almost certain that he would be chosen to represent the party. However, the scales began to tip in Wang's favor after Ma was formally indicted on embezzlement charges.
While Ma's popularity remains high, it is not unlikely that he will be convicted on those charges, which could have serious repercussions for the KMT's image. Hence Wang's determination to run as presidential candidate and nothing else.
Under such extraordinary circumstances, Lien and Wu Po-hsiung (
Given his political stature, it is highly unlikely Lien would settle for anything less than the presidency. However, Ma's unwillingness to be Wang's sidekick probably also applies to Lien.
It seems that in the weeks ahead the KMT will need to accomplish no less than squaring the circle.
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