Probable KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou has endorsed Wu Po-hsiung for the KMT Chairmanship election:
Ma made the announcement while he was visiting a temple in Taichung County. Ma said that because he does not holding any party or public office at present, he will support Wu as a party member, adding that he knows Wu is the best person to improve the party.
Later in the day, Ma's presidential campaign office issued a press release officially announcing Ma's support of Wu for party chairman. In the statement, Ma said that the by-election for party chairman will play a pivotal role in how the party fares in the coming legislative and 2008 presidential elections. He added that there is no need to pretend to be neutral in the battle and he urged all party comrades to pitch in their support for Wu. Ma praised Wu as having vast experience in important party and government offices, adding that Wu is well-respected for his dependability.
The news might come as a surprise to Wu's only opponent in the coming by-election, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), because she had earlier rejected a media report that said Ma would choose an appropriate time to publicly announce his support for Wu. Hung said that the news must have been fabricated by Wu's desperate aides and that it could hurt both Wu and Ma. Saying the chairmanship should not be a proxy war, Hung said the future chairman must not be partial toward any particular presidential candidate so as to ensure fairness in the presidential primary and party management in the future. Speaking of the race for chairman, she also stressed the importance of a fair election to the party's image.
The election is pretty much a foregone conclusion, since Hung is not a serious candidate. Still, Ma's main rival Wang Jin-pyng, manuvering for a longshot crack at the Presidential ticket, refused to endorse either.
Wu, the scion of a Taoyuan faction, is the highest-ranking Hakka in the KMT. In 2000 he became the first major KMT figure to visit China openly, arriving for a world Hakka congress. One of the axes of KMT control is an alliance between mainlanders and Hakkas to keep the Hoklo (Taiwanese-speaking) membership of the party under control. Wu has consistently sided with the mainlander core of the KMT -- in September of 2000, when the KMT voted to strip former President Lee Teng-hui of his party membership after he failed to support perennial loser Lien Chan in the Presidential election, Wu sided with the mainlanders. In addition to being a splendid example of how the KMT invented the ethnic politics that all claim to detest here, Wu is also one of the island's more prominent Buddhists, speaking at Buddhist engagements and holding high position in local Buddhist organizations. He has also been Chairman of the World Hakka Association, whatever that is.
UPDATE: Jason from Wandering to Tamshui points out in a private email that Wu's leadership will help the KMT in contested Miaoli, a Hakka stronghold.
[Taiwan] [KMT]