Ex-VP Lu denies running for DPP chair

“I am not in the race. I have no desire to run,” Lu told reporters on Tuesday.

Lu distributed a manifesto reviewing the DPP's just-concluded presidential campaign. Its release came one day before the party's Central Standing Committee was set to formalize its official post-election report.

So far, few at the party's top have provided incisive criticism, Lu said at a press briefing yesterday morning.

“Based on my observations, those interested in the chairmanship are afraid to say too much — they are especially afraid to say what's in their heart. But I am not in the race. I have no desire to run, so I can say it like it is,” she said.

Lu stressed that she is also not a member of the DPP's Central Standing Committee.

“It is because I have left the party machine that I now have freedom of speech,” she said.

Tsai Rejected 'Taiwan Past': Lu

“It is an incontrovertible fact that Tsai Ing-wen cut off Chen Shui-bian and other party elders, as if 'Taiwan Next' was equal to a rejection of 'Taiwan Past,'” according to Lu's written statement.

Lu told the press that it is “natural” for a party's older generation to transfer its power, but that Tsai had dropped the baton by rejecting elders' advice on her campaign platform.

Tsai's concept of team unity meant that everybody “shuts up,” said Lu in English.

Lu added that the DPP's “generational fault” had been evident to “even the casual observer”: Tsai's campaign banners rarely made use of the classic green, preferring to distance the DPP's campaign from the party's heritage with pink, dark red, yellow, or even the People First Party's orange.

“I kept asking, 'When will the rally go green?'” said Lu.

Other “blind spots” include Tsai's failure to quickly clarify her involvement in Yu Chang Biologics Co., and the DPP's small-donations drive. The “Three Little Pigs” sowed seeds of opposition from “big business wolves,” said Lu.

DPP Gives Mixed Reviews

DPP spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said Tuesday that the party accepts Lu's statement with “an open mind.”

The DPP is grateful for the instruction of party elders, which will provide a good reference for the next campaign, said Lin.

“I can't agree,” said DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), responding to Lu's critique of an intra-party “generational fault.”

There are a multitude of reasons behind the defeat, but alleged problems from a “generational fault” are not among them, said Lee at a forum by the pan-green Taiwan Brain Trust (TBT, 新台灣國策智庫).

Also at the forum, Diplomat Joseph Wu seconded Lee.

“(The generation gap) has never been a problem in the DPP leadership and it will not be a problem blocking the party's progress,” said Wu, Taiwan's top representative in the United States between 2000 and 2008.

DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) appeared less sure, but promised to respond to press in three days to one week.

“I am too young. I need more time to digest the information. Maybe because of the generational fault.”

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