Luo Replaces Kuo, Chen Criticized

News Analysis

Luo Replaces Kuo, Chen Criticized

Sources: Taipei newspapers

October 22, 2007

President Chen persuaded Luo Wen-jia, a former legislator and former chairman of the Council for Hakka Affairs, to run for a seat in the legislature. Kao Chia-yu, a former aide of Luo and formally recruited by the former DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun, will be replaced by Luo. DPP Legislator Lin Shu-shan, one of the so-called ‘Eleven Bandits’, castigated President Chen and said what President Chen had done in the DPP was tantamount to the behavior of an emperor and the political rape of Kao.

It was said that President Chen would reinstate the ‘Eleven Bandits’. DPP Legislators Shen Fa-hui pointed out that Luo Wen-jia’s assignment to run in the legislative election did not solve any problem, but the criticism and viewpoints of the ‘Eleven Bandits’ in the DPP still mattered. DPP Legislator Lin Shu-shan bluntly said, “The DPP has not proved that the ‘Eleven Bandits’ are clean and the ‘Eleven Bandits’ are still on the black list of the Party central. President Chen has only made the determination that Luo is a good candidate for the legislative election, and decided to recruit him.” “Important people from the Party central do not come to see a nobody like me. I will probably withdraw from the party and run in the legislative election as an independent candidate,” Lin added.

Luo Wen-jia said the premise for his running in the legislative election was that the Party central could tolerate multiple values, and he would be carrying out the ‘green ocean’ strategy in the future campaign. As for the dispute with Kao, Luo said, “I have not contacted Kao recently and this is not my problem; I do not want to spend time dealing with such disputes.”

Former DPP legislator Lee Wen-chung said “President Chen has done this with good intentions. But Kao was nominated through standard party procedures. Unless Kao voluntarily agrees to give up her nomination, it is more important to consider procedural justice than good judgment or success.”

When President Chen returned to the Party central and resumed its chairmanship, his old team also resurfaced. President Chen picked Luo Wen-jia to run in the legislative election, assigned Lin Chin-chang to be Minister without Portfolio in the Executive Yuan, and sought campaign strategy advice and opinions from Ma Yung-cheng, indicted in President Chen’s state affairs fund case.

After Chen’s resumption of the chairmanship, his two old campaign managers in the 2004 Presidential campaign were either assigned to Frank Hsieh’s campaign headquarters, or regrouped in the Presidential Palace, the Executive Yuan, and the Party central in order to preside over upcoming electoral challenges.

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