Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members yesterday called for reform of the soon-to-be opposition party following its landslide loss in Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.
“KMT leadership must refrain from paying lip service to party reform. If the party intends to usher in reform, it should start by revising rules regarding its chairmanship election,” former KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said on Facebook.
Yang said the KMT should allow any party member to vie for the chairmanship and significantly lower the hefty NT$2 million (US$59,140) deposit that each candidate for the position is required to pay.
Under the KMT’s charter, only party members who have served as members of the party’s Central Advisory Committee or Central Committee and have managed to obtain the endorsement of 3 percent of all party members are allowed to enter a chairmanship election.
Yang also said that at least one televised debate and policy presentation should be held for candidates.
“By reforming the party’s chairmanship election, the KMT would be able to deepen democracy within the party, expand grassroots participation and take a first step toward eradicating party bigwigs’ dominance,” Yang said.
It would also serve to measure KMT heavyweights’ willingness to introduce reform, he added.
Yang tendered his resignation as the KMT’s spokesman on Saturday after saying on Facebook the day before that Taiwanese would always be perceived as pro-independence activists in the eyes of China, regardless of how many concessions the nation makes.
On the same day, defeated KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced in his concession speech that he was to step down as party chairman to take responsibility for the KMT’s disastrous defeat in the elections.
Meanwhile, KMT Youth League Secretary-General Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) also took to Facebook to urge party leadership to undergo reform.
“Many people, including myself, have proposed reforms after Saturday’s elections, such as encouraging young people to join the KMT, making the party’s organization more horizontal and taking a more Taiwan-centric path,” Lee wrote.
However, Lee said that what he cared about most was whether party leadership is willing to divest itself of all its contentious assets, which he said have become a “political liability” for the party.
“The KMT can only call itself a party for the people when the public is willing to entrust just one dollar to the party because they believe even one dollar means something to the party and that it would maximize that money,” Lee said.
KMT International Information and Events Center director Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), who had served as Chu’s campaign spokesperson, on Saturday urged the party to take off its suit and put on straw sandals to “truly feel the temperature the people feel.”
“In order for the KMT to once again become a party worthy of voters’ trust four years from now, everyone should put aside their personal agendas and engage in rational debate on the party’s future policies and direction,” Hsu said.
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