Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

KMT needs to change its mindset

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday officially resigned as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to take responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat in Saturday’s elections.

The guessing game has started on who will be elected as the new party leader, with speculation rife among political observers over the reshuffle of power within the party and conjecture as to how the new lineup may affect the party’s prospects in the 2016 presidential election. However, whoever KMT members decide to elect as their new leader is their business; after all, revitalizing the party’s standing among Taiwanese does not depend so much on who is elected, but what mindset the new leader will bring to the helm of the party.

Breaking through the ‘party-state’ democracy

Chung Ming-Lun 鍾明倫

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had a landslide victory in the nine-in-one elections on Saturday last week, winning 13 of the 22 mayoral seats up for grabs. This has great implications for the nation’s political development.

After the elections, it is time to reflect on the question: Is Taiwan on the road to serfdom or on the road to human emancipation within the democratic framework of “party-state” capitalism?

KMT defeat a new start for Taiwan democracy

Chiu Hei-yuan 瞿海源

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was routed in the nine-in-one elections. It managed to win only one of the six special municipalities [including the soon-to-be-upgrade Taoyuan County], and garnered only 41 percent of the total number of votes for mayors of the municipalities — compared with 48 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party.

In light of the significant defeat, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) approved the resignations of Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and KMT secretary-general Tseng Tung-chuan (曾永權), but stopped short of taking responsibility himself, despite his prior insistence that he would not avoid accepting responsibility for election results.

Taiwanese compatriots include the ill and poor

Mayo Kuo 郭明裕

It is said that in big cities, social welfare organizations assist the poor, but it is a fact that the poor are often ignored by the law simply because they only have a small amount of money in savings.

This is precisely why people like Huang Yi-hua (黃怡華) — who goes by the nickname “Sweet Potato mama” and is a member of independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) team of advisers — came out strongly in support of Ko, saying that he is their only hope of turning their lives around.

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