Jerome Keating posts a reminder that the PFP may be coming back into the KMT fold:Ask not for whom the bell tolls, James Soong, it tolls for thee. This coming Monday December 12, a second meeting will take place between James Soong, leader of the People's First Party (PFP) and Ma Ying-jeou, the Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) to discuss the terms and conditions of a PFP/KMT merger. As a man who once came so close to having it all in the 2000 Taiwan Presidential Elections, one can only wonder what humble pie must taste like to James Soong as he prepares for this meeting.
Keating then gives a brief history of the splittists from the PFP, who oppose independence when it is for Taiwan, but support it for themselves. What will they ask for from the KMT? Their bargaining position is slim indeed. The Chairman of the KMT, Ma Ying-jeou, has great clout at the moment with the victory in the recent elections, and criticism has not begun yet (although there have been some rumblings from Wang Jyng-ping, Ma's rival for the Chairmanship earlier this year. Is that glow a forest fire on the horizon? Or just the embers of a dying fire?). If Ma wants to bring them in peacefully, now is the time when his own people will be more accommodating to his wishes. On the other hand, the KMT has shown that it can win without the PFP, and garner a much broader base of support than the PFP as well. What do they really need from the PFP?
Significantly, the PFP ranks are mostly opposed to a merger:
PFP caucus whip Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交) estimated that about 40 percent of the party's members are in favor of the merger, while 60 percent are against it, including PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄). Chang has said that he will quit politics for good if his party merges with the KMT.
Elizabeth in Asia, new to my blog roll, scribed the tale of a friend who got arrested for "stealing" a motorcycle.
He bought a scooter a year ago from a Taiwanese girl. They never made the official paper transfer and before she left the country this week, he requested that they file what was needed to transfer the scooter into his name. She accompanied him to the police station where they were told that there were some problems with registering the scooter blah blah blah. The next day the girl goes to a different police station and signs an affidavit swearing that her scooter was stolen. She leaves the country.
The moral of the story is obvious. Ducks in a row, folks, before you do anything here.
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More new blogs today:
[Taiwan] [Taiwan Blogs]
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