Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said he would “say goodbye” to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) if Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) runs for president on the KMT ticket.
Following President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) expression of disappointment and disagreement with KMT Chairman and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) decision not to continue the party’s lawsuit against Wang over his KMT membership, Lo said on Saturday that he does not approve of Chu’s decision either, but “could understand his difficult position as the party’s leader.”
“While not pursuing the case against Wang was detrimental to the party, its overall grade has remained positive,” Lo said.
However, should Wang represent the KMT in next year’s presidential race, Lo said it would be “time for me to say goodbye to this party.”
Meanwhile, former KMT legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) has called for Ma’s expulsion from the party.
“Ma alone has the potential power [to annihilate the KMT] that is greater than the Democratic Progressive Party,” Chang said.
“The reasons Ma cited for expelling Wang were the Wang’s [bad] influence on the party’s solidarity and his damage to its reputation, but Ma has also riven the party by using the judicial system to initiate a political struggle against an adversary within the party, and tainted the party’s reputation with his unpopular policies,” Chang said.
“The KMT, for these reasons, should also be able to revoke Ma’s membership,” he added.
While Chang is not a party representative, he said he has heard that some party representatives are planning to make such a proposal at the KMT’s national congress this year.
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