KMT legislator Ke Jun-hsiung (柯俊雄) announced that he's joined the Taiwan Farmers Party last night. He is still a KMT member, however, and it's unclear what penalty the party will impose. Hopefully, this will be the first of several such defections.
With the recent ractopamine related news :
TELLING PORKIES? : Health officials denied that the decision to drop a ban on pig feed additive had been influenced by a desire to smooth the way for US pork importsBearing that and Michael Turton's latest post which touches on the 1997 domestic pork market disaster, it's perhaps no surprise to hear the Taiwan Farmers Party is getting involved.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) and the Department of Health (DOH) issued a joint statement yesterday announcing that the ban on the use of the pig feed additive ractopamine would soon be lifted....DOH officials said a consensus was reached after a panel of 19 experts were consulted on the safety of ractopamine use....
However, Huang said the COA had not set a firm date for the lifting of the ban. The DOH, in turn, said it could not finalize the allowable residue limit for ractopamine while the ban is still in place.
Ractopamine, an additive used to promote the growth of lean meat, became an issue last month when two shipments of US pork were found to contain residues of less than 1ppb of the banned substance. Marketed under the trade name "Paylean" by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, the additive is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Subsequent testing of domestic pork revealed the presence of ractopamine in three out of 43 samples, the Bureau of Food Sanitation (BFS) said....
BFS Director Cheng Huei-wen (鄭慧文) denied charges that pressure had been brought to bear by US interests to lift the ban on ractopamine in order to smooth the way for continued US pork imports.
Taiwan never did have a strong labor movement, and leftist sympathizers who might have talked about protecting the working class or peasants would have been shot by the KMT in the past for being secret Communist agents. So it's not surprise that Taiwan does not currently have a traditional labor party either.
But things are shaping up in a surprising way this election. We've already discussed how the Taiwan Farmers Party was formed several weeks ago (ever since its opening meeting, it has disappeared off the radar completely). Now there's this news:
And then today, these union people said they would not rule out "staying in contact" with the Farmers Party. A united front there would present a pretty solid labor-oriented party. Since their aspirations are reasonable (only running for at large seats), it's quite possible they could secure some measure of the vote.The Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (CTWU) may team up with other industrial unions nationwide to form a new political party and field their own candidates in the next legislative elections, union chairman Chang Hsu-chung (張緒中) said yesterday....
Workers groups have been dependent on other political parties to fight for their rights and interests, Chang said, but by organizing their own party, the workers would have a better means to advance their causes.He said that NT$10 million (US$304,000) in funding had already been secured, enough for the proposed party to field 10 candidates in the Jan. 12 polls.
Chang said members of national federations of industries, as well as the CTWU and the Formosa Plastics Workers' Union met on July 19 for a preparatory meeting for the establishment of the new party, tentatively named the "Workers Solidarity Union." These representatives will meet again on Aug. 21, when the party could be formally established, he said..
He said the new party would campaign for a nationwide referendum on a workers' version of a pension policy, instead of an Executive Yuan's annuity policy; a referendum on banning dispatch workers and guarantees that would stabilize employment opportunities....
With 8.6 million workers in Taiwan, political analysts said the proposed party could turn into a force to be reckoned with if it wins the support of union members around the country.
They will be holding the first party congress on the 15h of July in Kaohsiung's Chengcing Lake Scenic Area (澄清湖風景區). The party charter, flag and emblem will be finalized on the 28th. Hsieh Yung-huei (謝永輝), president of Yunlin County Farmers's Association, will be the official contact man for the party.
I never did get around to translating all the info from the post on the Taiwan Farmers Party (台灣農民黨), but there was one thing of particular interest from the last UDN article.
Remember, the Farmers Party had hoped to go for only at-large seats, so as to avoid too direct of a conflict with the larger parties and so as to gather support from people's second vote (a very good strategy for small parties, if you ask me).
The problem is that the latest draft of the election and recall law would require any party ont he at-large list to meet one of two conditions: the party must either (a) have gotten 2 percent of the vote in the previous legislative election or (b) be running guys in at least 10 districts.
For a new party, only (b) is an option. And the party seems unlikely to come up with 10 guys willing to be sacrificial lambs just so the party can make an at-large list.
Although the news is old, the bill hasn't yet been passed as the DPP and KMT are still bickering over some (probably unrelated) details of the bill.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (中國國民黨) is working hard to suck up to the Farmers' and Fishermens' Associations (農漁會), sending chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) down to the center of the country to speak at an Agricultural society meeting (中部農業團體).
Wu Poh-hsiung defended the hard-working and clean nature of most associations and condemed recent DPP attacks against to the Farmers' and Fishermen's Association laws. The amendments, which the Executive Yuan had asked the Legislature to reconsider, removed term limits on general-secretaries and required officials to step down only after a final conviction as opposed to an initial conviction.
The pan-blue camp rejected the Executive's request. The KMT is particularly keen not to see its relationship with influencial general-secretaries deteriorate too far, given that some will be forming the Farmers' Party (台灣農民黨) this Friday.
The Farmers' Party goals will focus on bringing greater attention to the situations farmers (and fishermen) face and having a greater influence on national policy. Earlier reports indicated the Party's interest in cooperating with timber and othe rural industries.
Nothing really happened on this today; just what you'd expect. China Post noted that Farmers and Fishermens associations would join hands with timber and livestock industries for the party. Also, read Michael Turton's great article on Farmers Associations and rural politics.
Ma Ying-jeou suggested while talking to the media that Wang Jin Pyng be the KMT bridge to the Farmer's Party people and go "communicate with them" (read: talk them out of forming the party). Wang declined, stating:
「我沒有接到這樣一個，命令也好，或者是這樣要求也好，並沒有收到，這個黨的組成跟我一點關係也沒有，大家都很清楚的，那又何必一定要怎樣」。Wang also pointed out that there are people in the KMT Central Standing Committee closer to those forming the party than Wang himself is, a hint that there's no reason to automatically suspect him. He said he got no advance notice no this one.
"I haven't gotten anything [about talking to the Farmers' Party] -- no order, no request, I haven't got anything like that at all. [The Farmers' Party]'s formation has nothing at all to do with me, everybody is very clear on that. So why is it that I must do something?"
The Taiwan Farmers' Party (台灣農民黨) will be officially formed in Kaohsiung. It is being put together by the Farmer's and Fisherman's association (農漁會), a grass-roots organization who's leaders are largely native-Taiwanese and KMT sympathetic. The person in charge of forming the party is Hsiao Han-chun (蕭漢俊), director of the Kaohsiung County Farmers' Association. He is considered part of the "White faction" (白派), which is also what Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is (as opposed to the Red or Black factions).
The announcement instantly sparked KMT outrage and fear of a split in the party.
Wang insists he knows nothing about it and had no hand in it, but says it won't hurt the KMT in particular but would affect all parties; Ma asked Wang to clarify and that he simply can't believe that Wang knew nothing about this; The KMT Central Standing Committee threatened to revoke party membership of anyone who joins the Farmers' Party (something party regulations provide for), though the Party Secretary said the situation wasn't that serious; and other high-ranking CSC people also said they don't believe Wang wasn't involved. KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung also said the KMT would continue to communicate with the Associations to prevent the party from being formed.
The Farmers' Party people say they aren't going to put up a presidential candidate in 2008 and only want to compete for at large seats in the legislative election (now set for January 12th of 2008).
If you are wondering about the significance about Taiwan in the party's name, I would suggest it might not mean very much. Taiwan already has a "Farmers' Party" (農民黨), so the decision could be based on the fact that two parties can't register the same name.
