Tag: Taiwanese presidential election 2016

Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch: Give Me 20 cc’s Of Alarmism, Stat!

Hung Hsiu-chu responds to the KMT’s bid to oust her as their presidential nominee: “The KMT is doomed without me, I tells ya. DOOOOMED!”

In her first reaction to the decision…Hung said it would take the party into a different kind of danger. If the party used an abnormal method to execute an erroneous interpretation, it would lose all the trust of the people and the “big KMT building” would collapse in one day, she said in a statement. [Emphasis added]

On her Facebook page, Hung reiterated her point: “If I’m goin’ down, you’re goin’ down with me”:

…she said that attempts to replace her were tantamount to “destroying the system and discrediting the party.” She predicted that “those suffering the most will be the party itself and those running (for legislative seats) on the KMT ticket.”

Well, the KMT has been around a hundred years, and the Foreigner doubts that even the ill-fated 2 1/2 month campaign of Hung Hsiu-chu is enough to drive a stake though its heart.

(Though we can always hope.)

However, Hung is correct that the KMT will take some kind of hit in terms of public opinion, and this is already being borne out. But then, Hung’s removal is an exercise in damage control, NOT damage avoidance.

Nearly six out of 10 voters disagree with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) plan to oust Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as its presidential candidate, according to a survey released by the Cross-Strait Policy Association (CSPA) yesterday, with nearly 70 percent saying KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) would not win the election even if he manages to squeeze out Hung. [Emphasis added]

UPDATE (Oct 18 / 2015): More on the death throes of Hung Hsiu-chu’s campaign:

  1. Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch
  2. Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch: Give Me 20 cc’s Of Alarmism, Stat!
  3. Is The KMT’s Party Coup Against Its Presidential Nominee “Fair”?
  4. “Little Hot Pepper” Gives KMT Indigestion (Hung Hsiu-chu finally stripped of KMT’s nomination)

Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch

Kind of an important story when a major political party seeks to sack its presidential pick 100 days before the election.

Obviously, not nearly as important as the etymology of “Auld Lang Syne”, but still. Kind of important:

  1. Today, 28 out of 39 KMT Central Standing Committee members request a special emergency party session to remove Hung Hsiu-chu as the KMT’s presidential nominee.
  2. The motion is passed unanimously.
  3. The KMT’s Central Standing Committee also goes so far as to moot KMT Chairman Eric Chu as Ms. Hung’s replacement.
  4. The suggestion is committed to paper and unanimously agreed upon.
  5. Following this, influential KMT figures line up behind presumptive KMT presidential nominee, Eric Chu

An upset Hung Hsiu-chu supporter yells in anger (or anguish) at news that the KMT plans to remove her as its presidential candidate.

(One of Hung’s supporters upset by this latest turn of events.)

UPDATE (Oct 18 / 2015): I’ve seen other reports which state the motions weren’t passed unanimously, but were approved by 75% of those present.

UPDATE #2: More on the death throes of Hung Hsiu-chu’s campaign:

  1. Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch: Give Me 20 cc’s Of Alarmism, Stat!
  2. Is The KMT’s Party Coup Against Its Presidential Nominee “Fair”?
  3. “Little Hot Pepper” Gives KMT Indigestion (Hung Hsiu-chu finally stripped of KMT’s nomination)

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That Is Why You Fail, Part Daseot

Inability to recognize reality:

"To this day I am unwilling to believe that the rumors calling for [replacing me at the top of the KMT presidential ticket] are real," [Hung Hsiu-chu] said.

Reality:

  1. "[KMT Chairman Eric Chu] asked Hung to relinquish her role as presidential nominee up to three times in September."
  2. "Hung’s campaign team confirmed that KMT headquarters had recalled five of the seven staff members that the party had “lent” Hung’s campaign."
  3. KMT Chairman Eric Chu helpfully announced he's willing to take Hung's place should the party throw her under the bus.
  4. "…party members yesterday at a KMT Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting [proposed] an extempore national congress to replace Hung…"

Time to script her "Downfall" parody.

POSTSCRIPT: Hung does have a point however, when she says the KMT will look like it doesn't have its act together if it removes her:

…Hung had strong words for her detractors, saying that her ouster would mean losing the "last bit of expectation that the public has of our party" and that the party's past practices had belied the public's trust.

"What the people despise is the KMT's lack of transparency, its secrecy and its deal making," she said.

I'm enjoying the KMT's dilemma a little more than I should. Keep Hung, and the party goes down in flames.

Drop her, and spark an internecine war within the party. (After which, the party may very well go down in flames anyway.)

The KMT nominated Lady Straitjacket fair and square. Do not go gentle into that good night, Hung Hsiu-chu. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

That Is Why You Fail, Part San

KMT presidential nominee Hung Hsiu-chu publicly shames a colleague for providing "insufficient support" to her campaign

[Hung Hsiu-chu] said on a political talk show on Monday night that if she loses by a landslide in the Jan. 16 election “it would not look good for [KMT Chairman] Eric Chu (朱立倫) either.” [emphasis added]

Dale Carnegie book title: How To Win Friends And Influence People

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As Good An Explanation As Any For The KMT’s Nomination Of Hung Hsiu-chu

The American Interest on why Jeremy Corbyn took the top spot of the British Labor Party. But this sounds like a good working theory for why Hung Hsiu-chu is the Kuomingtang's presidential pick in Taiwan as well:

“If you are doomed to lose whatever you do, you might as well let your freak flag fly.”

Sure, nominating kooks politicians of dubious electability might feel good if they promote views hardcore elements of the party strongly adhere to. But as I see it, the problem with "letting your freak flag fly" is two-fold:

First, nominating radicals poses the danger of splitting a political party — something we're already hearing murmurs of in both Britain and Taiwan.

And second, in doing so, a political party sends the electorate the message that the party in question is fundamentally unserious and not to be trusted near the levers of power.

Not being either a British Laborite or a Chinese Ultranationalist, I'm entirely comfortable with both of those consequences.

POSTSCRIPT: The Taipei Times, suggesting that Hung's goal isn't to win the presidency at all, but merely to change the terms of the debate within the KMT. (That is to say, she wishes to marginalize the KMT's "Taiwanese" faction, and strengthen the party's Chinese unification faction.)

“I want to make changes to the party I belong to,” Hung said with tears in her eyes on Saturday.

[…]

…there is no room (and no need) for Hung to step back, especially if her goal is to foil the growth of the local factions within the party, which could lead the KMT away from its “core [unificationist] values.” She has little to lose, too, except a KMT founded on expedient coalitions, and she is obviously willing to trade a big KMT for a smaller one with stronger faith. [Emphasis added]

That Is Why You Fail, Part Deux

The last remnants of the old republic have been swept away:

[KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu] sparked controversy during a meeting with business leaders by saying that if [Taiwan's] legislature could not be reformed, then she would shut it down…

Russian tanks attacking Russian parliament (aka, the 'White House') in 1991.

(Russian tanks firing upon their country's parliament building. 1993. Image from Wikipedia)

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Communist Party’s Preferred Candidate Touts CCP’s Terms Of Surrender For Taiwan

Complying with the Butchers of Beijing's "One China" policy is just "common sense", claims KMT presidential contender Hung Hsiu-chu

Yoda saying, 'That is why you fail.'

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For Enlightenment, Click The “Like” Button

Spotted earlier today on Facebook:

The KMT's presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu photoshopped to look like a Buddhist bodhisattva

This strikes me as a little mean. KMT presidential contender Hung Hsiu-chu's religion is her religion, and if it brings her comfort during difficult times then I can't find it in myself to belittle her for it.

However…

The mandarins of Taiwan's Kuomintang do like to go on about how Confucian agnosticism is the one and only true path to public policy decision-making. So I eagerly await to hear their sneers now that one of their own has abandoned their central article of faith.

POSTSCRIPT: Hmm, well it looks like what's being satirized here isn't necessarily her religious views per se, but her comparison of herself to a type of Buddhist saint as well as a Buddhist warrior-angel:

“Read [the sutras], pray to a bodhisattva, but also be a bodhisattva,” Hung said. “In the face of Taiwan’s populism and hypocrisy, maybe I should also be a Vajrapani [warrior-attendant to the Buddha] that safeguards virtuous values.”

A Buddhist Vajrapani (warrior attendant to the Buddha).

(Vajrapani image from Photobucket)

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Lien Chan Returns After Celebrating The Marvelous Exploits Of The People’s Liberation Army

If the KMT's chairman emeritus wishes to tie his party to the Butchers of Beijing and their PLA stormtroopers, that can certainly be arranged.

The KMT's Lien Chan and Hung Hsiu-chu with an image of bloody Chinese tank treads running over a bicycle at Tiananmen Square.

Welcome back to Taiwan, Lien Chan. Not everyone has a good time at Tiananmen Square, but you enjoyed yourself.

And that's the important thing.

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