Taiwan’s former vice president criticized the country’s plans to legalize same-sex marriage.

Wu Den-yih of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was last week asked to show more support for marriage equality by a member of the public.

Wu was on the campaign trail after declaring his candidacy for the chairmanship of the KMT.

Wu said while space should be given to LGBTI people he did not support changing Taiwan’s Civil Code just to support ‘an extremely small minority with a different sexual orientation’.

In December a Taiwanese legislative committee approved a preliminary amendment to article 927 of the Civil Code which could pave the way to marriage equality.

But Wu argued a seperate Act should be created to make marriage equality a reality.

‘The nation can work on legislating a specific act regulating same-sex marriages,’ he said.

‘Amending the Civil Code would disrupt the lives of the majority and an ethical order that has been in place for centuries.’

Critics were quick to respond to Wu’s comments saying he has no concept of how democracy works.

‘He is basically still living in the martial law era. The core concepts of democracy and human rights are equality and justice, not separating people,’ said Professor Chen Fang-ming, National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature.

‘The nation has had three changes in government, but the KMT does not seem to have changed its ideas about politics and still thinks that government is meant to serve those with vested interests.

‘Wu wants to halt the proposed legislation on same-sex marriages; what he does not know is that people have already stopped believing in the KMT.’

Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy director Lu Yen-rong said even though LGBTI people are a minority they still have fundamental rights.

‘A majority of the people in this country believe in equality and justice, and they would not easily disregard the interests of the very few,’ Lu said.