TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman is calling on the ruling party to end infighting and pork-barrel politics in senior cabinet roles amid rumors of a cabinet reshuffle.
Shih Ming-teh (施明德), a renowned democracy activist in the country and a former political prisoner for 25 and a half years, also accused the party of contradicting tradition by choosing candidates without due process.
Shih, who co-founded the party 36 years ago, made the statement on a FB post the weekend after the DPP suffered decisive losses in November's local elections. The losses caused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to resign as party chair, so the DPP is now seeking a fresh face to fill the role, and Shih believes Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) is the man for the job.
DPP spirit degraded
Shih attributed the ruling party's recent fiasco to its bypassing of intraparty primaries in exchange for political favors, which led to the nomination of several unsuitable candidates to run for municipal heads.
"As you can see, the candidates nominated by the party who did not undergo a primary mostly ended up being knocked down." Shih was referring to the party's initial mayoral candidate for Taoyuan, Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), and DPP party chair hopeful Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦).
"Even the party's hardcore supporters might have found the nominations unacceptable, and this must be ended," said Shih.
"It is a turning point for the party to regain trust from its supporters and from its outgoing pioneers by letting the right person take the helm," he continued. "I believe incumbent Taiwan VP Lai Ching-te is the most ideal candidate for the role and for the 2024 presidential race."
Due process
Shih thinks the only other qualified candidate to vie for the role with Lai is former VP Chen Chien-en (陳建仁), who Shih encouraged to join the race for party chair if he has his eyes on the presidency in 2024. Shih urged the party to avoid the party infighting of 2019 and to have the presidential hopeful lead the party according to party traditions.
The day after Shih expressed his distaste for the party's handling of election nominations, media reports about Lai's plans to run for party chair in preparation for the 2024 presidential election surfaced on Monday (Dec. 5), but his office refuted these as rumors.
Lai's office stated the VP has yet to make any decision at the moment.
