Wu to be suspended; KMT to evade own regulations
The DPP will likely suspend the President's wife, whose corruption trial starts on Dec 15.Meanwhile, even as the DPP fulfills the spirit of its own rules, the KMT is floating trial balloons on evading the party rules on KMT candidates so that Great White Hope Ma Ying-jeou, currently chairman and mayor of Taipei, can run in 2008. Several legislators have suggested that he run as an independent if he has to leave the KMT. Currently KMT rules prohibit indicted candidates from running as KMT candidates in elections.The Central Review Committee, the watchdog of the Democratic Progressive Party, will discuss on Thursday suspending the party membership of Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), Legislator Kao Chih-peng told AFP.
"Since the motion has been raised, we have to deal with the issue in accordance with the party's regulations," said Kao, convener of the committee.
Tsai Huang-lang (蔡煌瑯), DPP deputy secretary general, expected the committee to approve the suspension, the state-funded Central News Agency - said.
"According to party rules, memberships of those charged with corruption will be suspended and anyone convicted by a district court will be expelled from the party. There is no exception," Tsai told the CNA.
The island's main opposition Kuomintang yesterday stressed that its leader Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has never considered entering the 2008 presidential contest as an independent candidate or withdrawing from the political arena if he is indicted over alleged misuse of the mayoral special allowance and resigns from the post of KMT chairman.KMT Lawmakers Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) and Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) suggested that even if Ma is indicted over special allowances case and relinquishes his chairman post he should insist on taking part in the next presidential election in 2008 as a KMT's nominee or even an independent candidate.
It would be fascinating to see what would happen if Ma ran as an independent. Remember that Ma has very little support from the party insiders.
Speculation: the prosecutor heading up the Chen family investigation is close to Lee Teng-hui, who probably still has links to members of the KMT party machine, which he cultivated during his tenure as President as a counter to the deep Blues who wanted to snuff democratization out in the cradle. The Deep Blue ideologues now support Ma Ying-jeou. What if Lee and Chen are taking out Chen Shui-bian -- in any case a lame duck with no political future -- so that they can legitimately go after Ma Ying-jeou, the chief threat at the moment to the future of a democratic and independent Taiwan? If Chen Shui-bian falls, no one can claim that a Ma Ying-jeou indictment is politically motivated. Meanwhile the KMT Party Machine watches benignly, waiting to put forward its candidates for the Presidency in 2008, Lien and Wang.
Just some paranoid speculation.
[Taiwan] [KMT] [Democracy] [DPP] [PFP] [media] [Ma Ying-jeou] [Chen Shui-bian]
posted Tuesday, November 28, 2006 @ 12:59 PM by Michael Turton
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2 Comments:
That's pretty absurd, Ma running as an "independent" -- with the backing of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members -- but then again, much of what the KMT says and does is quite absurd.
Tim Maddog
Lee Tung-hui taking out Chen as means to getting to Ma? Hmm. It's intriguing to think that Lee is still pulling strings, and it bodes well for Taiwan's future. Ma's in trouble regardless because the guys that really run the KMT want him gone. He should have cleaned house when he had the chance - he could have easily gotten rid of Lien when he took over as party chairman. The DPP brass must be rubbing their hands to see that Lien is still on the scene, and gaining momentum. I'm starting to see the DPP taking the 2008 presidential election again, Ma settling into a comfortable professor position somewhere and Wang becoming a sort of Taiwanese Lieberman. What on earth is Lien going to do if he loses again?
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