What’s this? The FE’21 Department Store in Banciao had a "Sexy Women Party" and I wasn’t invited?
(Image from the Taipei Times.)
Now I know how Ma Ying-jeou feels. The other day, Ma, the rookie KMT chairman, couldn’t even manage to get an invite to a meeting held by lawmakers belonging to his own political party.
That’s COLD, baby.
The April 10th meeting consisted of 20 to 30 legislators from southern districts who are unhappy with the party’s current obstructionist policies. There, attendees discussed changing the KMT’s platform, as well as methods for directing the party towards greater moderation on the issue of legislative gridlock. A few days afterwards, the snubbed chairman was reduced to announcing he was "happy to see legislators have opinions on the party’s affairs."
Yeah, right. And I’m happy that all those beautiful lingerie models had a really fun time at the Sexy Women Party.
You know – the one I wasn’t invited to.
UPDATE (Apr 18/06): Ma’s weak position as KMT chairman is discussed in further detail in a post over at One Whole Jujuflop Situation.
It is intriguing to speculate that the 20 or 30 dissatisfied KMT party backbenchers might someday be tempted to go off and form their own breakaway party. Such a possibility should not be dismissed out of hand, because such splits have happened to the KMT before. And not so very long ago, either.
Suffice it to say that a true status quo party in Taiwan that could cooperate with independence parties on national-security issues and oppose them on certain independence-related issues would be a positive democratic development here. Local politicians would then be provided with an example of how positive compromise and principled opposition can occur without parties resorting to the my-way-or-the-highway political tactics that remain a legacy of the martial law era.
UPDATE (Apr 26/06): David over at One Whole Jujuflop Situation argues persuasively that the notion of a "non-obstructionist KMT faction" is entirely chimerical. Instead, he suggests that the 30 KMT legislators met without Ma due to self-interest; they backed another man for KMT chairman during the leadership race, and now fear that the party may now change candidacy rules for THEIR SEATS in retaliation.
It looks then, that there may not be much ground for my speculations in my April 18th update.
i-1
Hey, I was there, but they cropped me out of the picture as they didn’t want me outshining the girls. I had your invitation blocked — didn’t want the girls to pay attention to ANYONE but me.
I mean seriously, is there a better place to find babes than the business section of the Taipei Times? Even Apple Daily can’t compete.
Michael
I KNEW there had to be a perfectly good reason why I was overlooked like that.
Bitter? Nooo, I’m not bitter…