Mon, Dec 18, 2006 page3

• NewsMaker: Soong remains a force to be reckoned with

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan / STAFF REPORTER
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  Less than a week after People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) announced his decision to retire from politics, the news that he was returning to the limelight was confirmed on Friday.

  The PFP announced that Soong will lead a PFP/Non-Partisan Solidarity Union think tank, thus leaving him as a political force to be reckoned with.

  "Soong is a brave and ambitious man of a particular generation," said Chen Mao-hsiung (陳茂雄), a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University.

  

  People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong shows his disappointment after his loss in the recent Taipei mayoral election on Dec. 9. Shortly afterwards, Soong declared publicly that he would drop out of politics.

  PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES

  When former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) died in 1988, many mainlanders were distrustful of vice president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was handpicked by Chiang.

  The group sought to limit Lee's power, but Soong helped clear the way for Lee's succession to power.

  "Soong made the choice because he knew that he had many rivals on the mainlanders' side. Establishing himself as one of the few mainlanders loyal to Lee would make him second only to Lee should Lee succeed," Chen said.

  After serving as Lee's secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for four years, Soong was appointed by Lee as governor of Taiwan Province, a level of government holding jurisdiction over most of the country except for the special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, in 1993. He was then elected governor the next year with 56 percent of the vote, or 4.7 million votes.

  During his five-year governorship, Soong toured the country extensively and built a reputation as a potential presidential candidate.

  "He was a hard-working governor who cared about people, always showing concern for the sufferings of individuals," said Lee Hung-yuan (李鴻源), a deputy commissioner of the Taipei County Government.

  "Soong not only kept a close watch on how his staff were doing but also helped us solve problems should we encounter any," he added, having been in charge of the water resource department of the last two years of Soong's governorship.

  Director of the department of information of the Taipei County Government Yang Ko-hua (楊克華) said the thing that impressed her most under Soong's governorship of Taiwan Province was its working efficiency.

  "Soong had a mobile office -- a vehicle that carried him around. Upon finishing an inspection, he called his government staffers telling them how to deal with the problems he had just learned about as soon as he got back to his vehicle," said Yang, who was then a political reporter.

  The image of "a capable person," as Sooong often labeled himself, however, was not enough to get him elected president -- he failed in the 2000 presidential election as an independent candidate and in 2004 when he ran as vice presidential candidate to the KMT's Lien Chan (連戰).

  Soong's recent defeat in the Taipei mayoral election, when he received a mere 4.1 percent of the vote, caused him to announce the end of his political career.

  Commenting on Soong's fall, Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, said Sonng's failure lay in an inability to convince people that the PFP is different from the KMT.

  "When Soong has been competing with KMT [former chairman] Lien Chan in showing off people who has better relationship with China, how could Soong, unacceptable to pan-green supporters and abandoned by pan-blue supporters, get elected?" he said.

  Chen Yi-shen said KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had successfully turned the KMT into pro-unificationist's only choice, a phenomenon that began in the post-Lee [Teng-hui] era of the party.

  "Even [Legislative Speaker] Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) needed to declare that he opposed Taiwan's independence when he ran in the election for KMT chairman [last year], proving that it would only get harder for the PFP to attract pan-blue supporters," he said.

  But Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光), a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said Soong's failure had nothing to do with the PFP's policies.

  "For one thing, there was a structural problem in the case of single-seat elections. For another, there was a problem of campaign strategy," he said.

  Ger said the KMT and PFP should learn to concentrate on campaign issues concerning public policies so that the pro-unification versus pro-independence debate won't always be the only issue.

  For your information

  James Soong

  * Born: March 16, 1942 * Birthplace: Hunan Province, China * Party affiliation: People First Party * Education: Doctoratein political science, from Georgetown University * Experience: English secretary of premier Chiang Ching-kuo (1974-1977), personal secretary to president Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1981) and (1984-1989), director of the Government Information Office (1979-1984), KMT secretary-general to chairman Lee Teng-hui (1989-1993), governor of Taiwan Province (1993-1998), chairman of People First Party (2000-)
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