TAICHUNG (Taiwan News) — Once again, Kuomintang (KMT) Chair Eric Chu (朱立倫) is facing uproar in the party and calls for him to step down, something that seems to be happening every six months or so. This time, however, it is over something surprising, namely corrupt politics.
On March 15, Chu released the names of the party’s central election strategy committee, normally a non-newsworthy event. The 10 names on the list were mostly mid-to-high level politicians, and were clearly picked because they had electoral experience and to balance the various factions and groupings in the party.
On the list were a former Tainan City Council speaker and the notorious “King of Hualien,” Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁). What caused the outbreak of dissent from politicians of all stripes throughout the KMT was that both had criminal records.
This was surprising and must have caught Chu thoroughly off-guard. In the past, no one would have batted an eyelid, as this was normal for the KMT.
Firing the first salvo, KMT Taipei City Councillor Chung Pei-chun (鍾沛君) expressed her fury at the inclusion of the two ex-convicts, and resigned as deputy director of the KMT’s culture committee. She was followed by her fiery counterpart and media darling Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), who said it made her heart “half cold.”
Explosion of criticism
A torrent of criticism from within the party broke out, with one KMT politician or another coming out in opposition. Deep blue media figure and declared presidential candidate Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) called it “totally stupid” and called for the committee to be disbanded.
Probably most damaging to Chu were the strong comments posted on Facebook by New Taipei mayor and widely tipped presidential frontrunner in the KMT, Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), who wrote “no matter the political party, black gold (corruption) absolutely must not return to power.” Later Chu called Hou, a phone call Chu characterized as “smooth,” something Hou has not confirmed.
By the afternoon of the same day, Chu was still trying to play it down and calling for party unity, presumably thinking it wouldn’t last more than one or two news cycles. Clearly thinking the same thing, the party also defended the pair, saying they had served their time, so there was no longer any controversy, and thanking them for their service on the committee.
The next morning, the KMT was even more defensive, calling on people not to “act on hearsay” and “spread falsehoods” and saying that Eric Chu was “obviously” determined to see this through. Chu said that while the party leaders would engage in “self-reflection,” the committee member list wouldn’t be affected. Later, Chu seemed to relent slightly, saying the committee member list was still being adjusted.
By the afternoon, it was clear what those adjustments were. The former Tainan speaker was out, and two new members were added, including the candidate who came fairly close to winning the Tainan mayoral race for the KMT in November, Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介). Two problems, the “King of Hualien” Fu was still on the list, and by that evening Hsieh posted he was refusing to join the committee.
Minimal damage control
With egg on his face and the situation clearly spinning out of control, Chu announced “all the mistakes are mine.” Meanwhile, at almost the same time, Fu gave a press conference, calling on Hou to immediately announce he was running for president, adding he would go all out to help him, and that if Hou felt the committee wasn’t ideal he should take command of it, because Taiwan needs a hero.
Notice that neither Chu nor Fu suggested that Fu was off the committee. Why is that?
Remarkably, at almost the same time as Chu and Fu were meeting the press, Jaw Shaw-kong was speculating on that at his own press conference. He asked if it was a situation of the tail wagging the dog, or the dog wagging the tail.
A couple of hours later in a post on Facebook, Chung Pei-chun, who’d kicked off the storm, questioned if the party was under Chair Chu or Chair Fu, and said of Chu, “It looks like Fu is stomping on your head, can’t you feel it?”
This story will continue to play out, but the question is: Why is the KMT suddenly so concerned about corruption? To understand that we have to go back to the last election, and look forward to the upcoming one.
Why the KMT is concerned
Just prior to the last election, some corruption scandals started emerging on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) side, especially in Tainan and most especially surrounding the ‘88 shooting’ case.
The KMT jumped at its chance to accuse the DPP of engaging in corruption. That is considered one of the reasons the DPP did so badly.
The KMT had its own corruption scandals, of course, most notably in Yilan. Corruption accusations, however, are far more potent against the DPP than the KMT.
This is because the KMT has been widely associated with corruption, going all the way back to the martial law period. The perception of the KMT is that they are better at administrating, but they often get their hands dirty, while corruption helps in terms of personal reward and extending power.
Since the early days of the DPP, by contrast, the party has campaigned as the clean alternative to the KMT and specifically built a part of its image around combating corruption. The DPP is generally seen as more idealistic and clean, if not as strong at administration, because it strictly follows the rules.
While there are exceptions to the rule for those stereotypes, in years of having done business with governments of both parties, there is a grain of truth to them. If the DPP gets associated with corruption, it gets the short end of the stick on both counts, turning off independents and encouraging their supporters to just stay home on election day — both of which appeared to be problems last November.
Corruption doesn’t distinguish
In her initial attack that set this whole thing in motion, Chung Pei-chun suggested that from this day forward how can the KMT keep accusing the DPP of corruption (if the party puts former criminals in top posts)? Hsu Chiao-hsin noted it turned off young voters.
One media commentator congratulated Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the new slogan the KMT had just handed them: “Corruption doesn’t distinguish between blue or green.” The KMT has recently been trying to rebuild its brand, something Eric Chu himself promoted by handpicking candidates in the last election to weed out bad apples, but now Chu has scored an own goal.
This newfound introspection on the issue of corruption in the KMT is a good thing. The party has a huge task ahead of it to remove it all, but this is a start.
Taiwan can only be better for it.
UPDATE: On the morning of the 18th, the KMT announced that the committee would be suspended and the party would go back to its previous method of selecting candidates. Hou Yu-ih was contacted to join a selection committee for legislative candidates, but he hasn’t yet confirmed one way or another.
