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Factionalism could hurt the KMT
By Chen Chao-chien 陳朝建
Monday, May 31, 2010, Page 8
The battle for the mayoral elections in the five direct
municipalities in November is about to begin. We need to take a look at whether
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has rid itself of its connection to local
factions. Taking a closer look, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT
chairman, and the KMT may desire to part with that old baggage, but they are
unable to extract themselves from factional disputes. Both the party’s
nomination process and its campaign preparations seem to contain many
contradictions.
Take the KMT’s campaign preparations in Taipei City, for example. The party
nominated Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is seeking re-election. However,
worried that its campaign machinery might be a bit rusty, it also appointed KMT
Vice Chairman Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) and John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) to direct the “battle in
the capital” against the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nominee, former
premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who is surging forward. The KMT has no local
factions in the capital, but by appointing Chan and Chiang to lead the campaign,
the party hopes to stabilize support from its “military” faction, the Huang Fu-hsing
(黃復興) branch. This is not much different from cultivating local factions.
Next, let’s look at the KMT’s campaign preparations in Sinbei City. The party
does not have a faction entirely covering the new city, as local factions are
concentrated in current cities and townships. This makes integration quite
difficult. In light of the problem, the party has appointed KMT Vice Chairman
Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) to lead the campaign. Lin, a former Taipei County
commissioner, is familiar with all large and small factions in the region and he
can help the KMT’s nominee, former vice premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), to control the
local faction leaders. The problem is that this is contradictory to Ma’s
statement that “the KMT will bring down the factions even if it means losing the
elections.”
The next example is the KMT’s campaign preparations in Greater Taichung. In
Taichung City, local factions have almost disappeared because of the high
urbanization and voters’ self-awareness. Still, under the long-term rule of KMT
Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), the so-called “Hsiao family” (蕭家班) among Hu’s deputy Hsiao
Chia-chi’s (蕭家旗) supporters has quietly appeared, forming a new kind of
political faction, rendering a local leader a powerful official.
In Taichung County, there are three forces: The “Red” faction led by
Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以), the “Black” faction
led by former national policy advisor Chen Kang-chin (陳庚金), and those who swing
back and forth between the two factions, especially the Dajia Zhenlan Temple
(大甲鎮瀾宮) faction headed by Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen
Ching-piao (顏清標). So far, they have been reluctant to cooperate with Hu, which
is a cause for concern for the KMT.
Interestingly, after DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) recently
announced his candidacy in the Greater Taichung mayoral race, he immediately
contacted the KMT’s faction leaders and vote captains. This indicates that the
Red and Black factions are beginning to shift and might consider leaning toward
the DPP.
For the KMT, a greater danger could arise if Hu is forced to enter into an
alliance with Yen during the campaign. By doing so, the party would be labeled
pro-faction and pro-black gold and could lose the support of floating voters. In
addition, the party appointed KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) to
supervise the campaign in that municipality, but Chiang has no connections with
local factions there. It is questionable whether he can win over their support
for Hu.
Looking at the KMT’s campaign preparations in Greater Tainan, the party
nominated the scholarly former KMT legislator Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) instead of
another former KMT legislator, Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), who had already begun to
integrate support from the “Mountain” and “Sea” factions. This method of
undermining the local factions is a repetition of the party’s nomination
strategy in both the legislative by-election in Yunlin County in September last
year and the county elections in December last year. However, without the
support of the Mountain and Sea factions in Tainan County along with the Wang
(王), Kao (高) and other factions in Tainan City, it will be extremely difficult
for Kuo to win the election. In particular, some of Lee’s vote captains have not
excluded the possibility of leaning toward the DPP. If this happens, the
pan-blue camp might lose Greater Tainan.
Finally, there is the mobilization of supporters in Greater Kaohsiung.
Although the party already nominated KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順),
supporters of KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) have passively boycotted her.
Also, Huang hopes to gain support from leading figures of the “White” and the
“Red” factions, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and KMT
Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世). Interestingly, the party appointed two other vice
chairpersons — Chiayi Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) and Vice Legislative Speaker
Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) — to supervise the campaign in Greater Tainan and Greater
Kaohsiung respectively, and to support each other. One of the purposes is to
avoid too much involvement of the local factions dominated by the Wangs in the
elections — an attempt to suppress the local factions.
In conclusion, the KMT does not really have any local factions in Taipei City,
but it continues to support the Huang Fu-hsing military faction. In Sinbei City,
Greater Taichung and Greater Tainan, the party nominated members of its elite,
all with good images, though they all have a love-hate relationship with the
local factions. On one hand it enters into alliances with them, but on the other
it attempts to suppress them. With such a disorganized approach, party reform
will be half-baked as it maintains an ambiguous relationship with factions, a
dynamic that blocks attempts at reform.
Chen Chao-chien is an assistant professor in the Graduate
School of Public Affairs at Ming Chuan University.
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