DPP News = Good news

The mysterious east.

Solidarity has the details, but the DPP has wisely picked Su Chia-chyuan, the sensible, competent, and solid politician who ran for Veep with Tsai in 2012 as its Speaker of the Legislature. A county chief in Pingtung, Su came up to the center for the 2010 mayoral election in Taichung, barely losing it. He is close to Tsai, who apparently backed him strongly.

This is a victory for the DPP's potential governance. Many of us had been fearing that the job would fall to longtime majority whip Ker Chien-ming, who was buddy to former KMT Speaker Wang Jin-pyng. That would represent politics as usual. This doesn't.

I looked under the Entertainment and Sports category at FocusTaiwan, but couldn't find anything on the KMT Chairmanship election. Fortunately the Taipei Times had another hard-hitting editorial on it:

Under the KMT’s regulations, only party members who have served on the KMT Central Committee or Central Advisory Committee are eligible to seek election.

The Central Committee has 210 members, who are elected at the party’s national congress from a pool of no more than 420 candidates, half of whom must be nominated by the KMT chairperson and the other half by about 1,600 party delegates.

As for the Central Advisory Committee, its members are appointed by the KMT chairperson, but must be approved by the congress delegates.

Candidates are required to pay a hefty, nonrefundable “handling fee” of NT$1.6 million (US$47,417) and collect the signatures of at least 3 percent of total KMT members, of which there are about 320,000.

The handling fee seems to be another deliberate attempt by the party’s leadership to prevent younger or less well-off members from contending for the post.

The party’s 3 percent endorsement threshold also poses a challenge to aspirants who are not among the top echelon or who are not a member of any of the longstanding factions.

No wonder the KMT keeps getting the same people at the top... earlier this week Hau Lung-bin surprised everyone by withdrawing from the race for the Chairmanship, probably after sensing a lack of support. The race is now pretty much between current vice chair Huang Min-hui, a faction politician from Chiayi backed by the party establishment, and Hung Hsiu-chu, the former presidential candidate, who is the hero of the bitter enders and the Old Soldiers. This looks like a replay of the Chairmanship election in 2005, also about reform, when Ma Ying-jeou ran as the ideological darling of the conservatives, and Taiwanese Wang Jin-pyng, supported by party elites. Ma won that one with the strong support of the Old Soldiers.

Whatever happens, the elites will likely continue to head off genuine Taiwan centered reform, struggling to preserve the KMT as is. Whatever happens, there will be another election next year, so the internecine struggle will continue behind the scenes...
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Daily Links:

• Me in the Lowy Interpreter: Ma Ying-jeou's Extremely Unhelpful trip to the Spratlys. A short piece, so couldn't give much background. 
• Taiwan Brain Trust: Latest articles in English, including an economic argument for joining the TPP, which will cause grave harm to the economy.
• Taiwanese deported for Taiwan independence sticker on passport

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