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Posted on 12/02/2001 5:38:50 PM PST by Hopalong

Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) leaders announced yesterday that their party would not participate in a new National Stabilization Alliance proposed by President Chen Shui-bian.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is hoping to establish a majority presence in the legislative branch through a coalition-style alliance.

DPP strategists have indicated that they are aiming at putting together an alliance of 120 legislators, out of a total number of 225.

The DPP won a total of 87 seats, while the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party created for the stated purpose of helping the president out in the Legislative Yuan, took another 13.

Senior DPP officials say they have already lined up another five independent lawmakers, leaving them just 15 short of their target.

To fill in the gap, party officials say they are hopeful of enticing 15 KMT lawmakers, including five each from the country's northern, central, and southern regions.

Already, the president is reported to be on the phone trying to draw support for his newly proposed alliance.

Chen is thought to have called both People First Party chairman James Soong and KMT chairman Lien Chan on election night.

Officials at the Presidential Office were also putting together a list of lawmakers-elect over the weekend so the president could start cold-calling this week.

But contact with opposition lawmakers on the idea of an alliance apparently started long before voters went to the poll.

On KMT lawmaker, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that Chen had invited him and some colleagues to the Presidential Office recently, presumably to discuss possibilities for cooperation.

However, the lawmaker said that he politely declined the offer because he felt that it could look bad both for him and his party.

But now that the KMT has suffered what appears to be a major setback in the Legislative Yuan, analysts are predicting that the party might lose more seats to defections to either the DPP or the People First Party (PFP).

There has also been some speculation that a second defeat at the hands of the independence-leaning DPP could push the KMT and the two splinter parties, Soong's PFP and the nearly non-existent New Party, back into each other's arms.

But New Party convener Hsieh Chi-ta, who lost her bid for re-election along with all but one of her fellow party members, vowed that her party would continue to operate independently and fight for its principles.

DPP chairman Frank Hsieh was also skeptical that the "Pan-Blue Corps" would be holding a reunion anytime soon.

Please see KMT on page

Instead, Hsieh said he saw the KMT slipping slowly into insignificance, much in the way the New Party has gradually dropped off the political radar in Taiwan.

Continued bad news for the KMT has also led to some political observers to wonder if the party's chairman might be on the way out.

Former vice-president Lien Chan has in effect presided over the demise of the KMT from its original role of the country's ruling to its current position as the largest opposition party in the course of the past two elections.

However, a post-election meeting of top KMT officials suggested that Lien is still firmly at the party's helm.

In a statement given after the meeting, KMT spokesman Wang Chih-kang said that the party's five vice-chairman had agreed to continue to support Lien.

Wang also said that an agreement in principle had been reached not to participate in the proposed National Stabilization Alliance or any other organization operating outside the scope fo the Constitution.

The KMT was very interested in engaging in party-to-party talks with the ruling party on specific issues, Wang said.

The former economics minister went on to say that the KMT was also planning to cooperate with the second largest opposition party, the PFP, on a wide range of issues.

Wang also indicated that party leaders hoped to see Kaohsiung County lawmaker Wang Jin-pyng re-elected as legislative speaker.

Before election results were in, political observers were suggesting that the DPP might agree to support Wang's bid for a second term in return for his participation in the National Stabilization Alliance.

But now, given the "Pan-Green Corps" near majority in the Legislative Yuan, pundits are thinking that the DPP might try to get one of its own elected as speaker.

Already, the DPP's Tsai Tong-Jung and Ker Chien-ming have let it be known that he is interested in the post.

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