Amid claims from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that its chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), wishes to meet with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to work out an alliance for the January legislative elections, the PFP accused the KMT of sabotaging the PFP behind its back.
According to PFP sources, while the KMT said it wanted to cooperate with the PFP in the elections, it was telling potential PFP legislator hopefuls to “look at the big picture” and to back out from the elections.
For example, the sources said, Taipei City Councilor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) of the PFP, who was planning to run in the legislative elections in the Nangang (南港) Neihu (內湖) constituency, has been pressured by the KMT to back out of the campaign.
Sources from the PFP said the party would announce its list of nominees for legislators as early as next week, adding that as well as about 10 nominees for Taiwan proper, the PFP would also nominate candidates for Taiwan’s -outlying islands.
The move by the PFP, which split from the KMT in 2000 under the leadership of Soong — a former KMT secretary-general — was largely interpreted as a sign of disunity in the KMT-dominated pan-blue camp, signaling that Soong and his tiny party would go their own way in the elections.
The source added that no further details could be given at this time because one or two potential legislative nominees were planning to back out of the elections because of KMT pressure.
When asked for comment on the KMT’s alleged strategy of “seeking cooperation while attacking at the time same,” PFP Secretary-General Chin Ching-sheng (秦金生) said he “has gotten used to it.”
He added he did not wish to discuss the issue because the KMT would no doubt deny it.
“But if you ask around among the grassroots politicians, you’ll know [about the KMT’s tactics,]” he said.
On Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) recent remarks that Ma has not been able to get in touch with Soong on the telephone in the past month to set up a meeting to discuss cooperation between the two parties in the elections, Chin said he was unaware of the matter.
The PFP chairman’s office, meanwhile, also denied Wu’s remarks, saying it had not received a call from the Presidential Office since the Ma administration took office in 2008, adding that any news relating to the Ma-Soong meeting had only been gleaned from the media.
PFP sources said that not only was the KMT sabotaging PFP campaign efforts, it also spread propaganda to persuade pan-blue supporters that they should not support the PFP, in a bid to try to force the PFP out of the election.
According to PFP sources, the party has received many calls asking it to see the big picture and stand united. Propaganda was suspected because it was obvious that those callers were organized because they all sounded as if they were reading straight from a script, the sources added.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS