DEFENSE MINISTER HAS NO PLANS TO REJOIN KMT
ROC Central News Agency
2007-03-12 18:49:46
Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Minister of National Defense Lee Jye said Monday that he will not seek to have his membership of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) reinstated.
Lee, whose membership was revoked last week by the KMT, made the remarks while fielding questions at a legislative committee.
Lee also dismissed a suggestion by legislators of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that he should join the DPP and serve as the running mate of Premier Su Tseng-chang should Su be chosen as the DPP's candidate in the 2008 presidential election. "I'm not going to enter politics," Lee said.
Lee earlier said that "it will be best for me to become free from political affiliation in my task to make the military politically neutral."
He said the policy of military neutrality will continue.
He also said that as a KMT member for the past 50 years, he had "an attachment" to the party, and he would not be hard on the party.
Lee's membership was revoked by the KMT the previous week on the grounds that he had seriously tainted the KMT's reputation and eroded the military's morale by agreeing with an Executive Yuan decision to remove all statues of the late President Chiang Kai-shek from military facilities around the country.
The KMT noted that the late Chiang was president of the Huangpu Military Academy, the predecessor of Taiwan's military academy aimed at nurturing elite military officers.
Meanwhile, the legislative caucus of the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said it will propose revising the law requiring generals to withdraw from political parties.
Tseng Tsang-teng, a TSU caucus whip, said the move would help achieve the goal of military neutrality in politics.
(By Lilian Wu)
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