Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said Monday January 11 that in a conversation with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman a day earlier, he told him that the big news in Taiwan today is that President Ma Ying-jeou is facing a "leadership crisis" and criticizing the government has become a "national movement."
Hu stated that the KMT needs to review and correct its mind-set of seeing poll results as a cause, rather than a consequence. He also said, "many people support President Ma and believe he is doing things, but they are not able to tell what he has achieved." He added that not only the president, but also the Kuomintang and the whole nation should think about how to reverse the situation.
Hu, who was on his way to a visit to the U.S., compared the atmosphere for the Kuomintang at the moment to the frigid weather in North America, saying: "It's really cold for the KMT. We need to work out some remedies, and not to allow it (cold atmosphere) to become a trend." "I hope the situation can be reversed by the end of February," Hu said, referring to four more legislative by-elections that will take place on Feb. 27. (Source: Lillian Lin, Central News Agency, Jan 12, 2010).