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Falun Gong members target Jiang

By Debby Wu

STAFF REPORTER

The Taiwan Falun Dafa Institute held a memorial service yesterday to highlight its appeal for people to file lawsuits against Chinese President Jiang Zemin for genocide.

"However, we are not able to accuse Jiang in Taiwan because there is no Taiwanese law against genocide," said Chang Ching-hsi, director of the institute.

The institute held a memorial ceremony yesterday at Ta-an Forest Park for the Chinese Falun Gong members who suffered during the Beijing government's crackdown on the group on July 20, 1999. The institute has held a memorial service every year since 2000.

To support Falun Gong members who are persecuted in China, the institute has appealed for public support for a global trial of Jiang on genocide charges.

Jiang ordered a crackdown on Falun Gong on July 20, 1999 and large-scale arrests began shortly afterward.

Two days later, Jiang banned the practice altogether, but this did not stop people in China from practicing Falun Gong exercises.

Chang, who is a professor in the economics department at National Taiwan University, said official statistics show that some 700 Falun Gong members have died from the Chinese government's abuse, but the actual figure could be as high as 7,000.

About 500 Falun Gong members showed up for yesterday's ceremony, all dressed in yellow t-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as "Falun Dafa Is Good". During the event, Falun Gong exercises were performed and taught, its music sung and films played.

Representatives from the KMT, DPP and TSU attended the ceremony as well as prominent literary figures such as Contemporary Monthly magazine's editor-in-chief Chin Heng-wei.

Falun Gong member Yang Ching-tsung said colleagues were concerned about the persecution of their fellow members in China.

"Sometimes we send mail and make telephone calls to the relevant authorities or organizations to tell them about our concerns," Yang said.

A similar commemoration ceremony was held in Kaohsiung yesterday.

"We hope that we can get public support for a global trial for Jiang," said Yu Chih-jung, the Falun Gong member in charge of the Kaohsiung event.

Activists practice Falun Gong exercises during an event in Taipei City's Ta-an Park yesterday to protest against China's suppression of the movement.

Beijing's renewed support for embattled Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa was predictable and left unresolved massive discontent in the territory triggered by an anti-subversion bill, opposition lawmakers said yesterday.

"No matter how much the central government backs Tung, he is still a lame duck," said pro-democracy legislator and unionist Lee Cheuk-yan.

Tung is facing his worst political crisis since he was put in charge of Hong Kong when Britain returned this former colony to China six years ago.

A march on July 1 by a half million people who fear the anti-subversion measure will undermine civil liberties forced Tung to put it on hold. He said he will open new public consultations before his next attempt to get the measure enacted.

Chinese President Hu Jintao backed Tung on Saturday and also said Hong Kong's people will eventually support the national security legislation.

But pro-democracy lawmakers and rights activists expressed doubts yesterday that the overwhelming public opinion against the bill would change.

"People have made their views clear," opposition lawmaker and persistent Tung critic Emily Lau said yesterday.

"Even if the central government doesn't respond, the people won't keep quiet," she said.

Public sentiment toward Tung has also been soured by Hong Kong's staggering economy, and there's little economic relief in sight.

The crisis deepened last week when Tung announced the back-to-back resignations of two key Cabinet members, the security and finance secretaries.

Secretary for Security Regina Ip had been the chief official pushing for the anti-subversion measure. Although Ip said she stepped down for personal reasons, critics charged she had lost credibility and would be unable to lobby for the bill again.

The July 1 demonstration was the biggest in Hong Kong since 1 million people took to the streets to protest China's deadly crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy student movement on June 4, 1989. The turnout stunned Tung, who said he spent a sleepless night after watching it on television.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: An analyst said that if a vote shows that the people want the reform, then there is little lawmakers can do to avoid carrying it through

A referendum on legislative reform could prod lawmakers into reviving a government pledge made in 2001 that all parties support, a political analyst said.

Two DPP lawmakers last week suggested adding the referendum to two others -- on the the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and membership of the World Health Organization -- which the government is planning to hold on presidential election day next March.

A vote in favor of legislative reform would create enormous pressure on lawmakers who have been lazy in honoring their commitments, said Hsu Yung-ming, assistant research fellow at the Academia Sinica.

Hsu said it was unlikely that lawmakers would speed up reform of the Legislative Yuan in the next few months without an catalyst such as the referendum since the task required amending the Constitution.

"Because the number of legislature seats is stipulated in the ROC Constitution, the country cannot realize the goal of legislative reform until the revisions are confirmed by a special session of the National Assembly," Hsu explained.

He said a referendum, especially if it is conducted according to a yet-to-be-passed referendum law, would help kickstart the stalled reforms.

A consensus to reform the legislature was reached by the major parties when they decided to abolish the National Assembly in 2000 and was endorsed by a majority of legislators in the 2001 legislative election.

A campaign initiated by the Action Alliance for the Reform of the Legislature attracted the signatures of 179 lawmakers who pledged that they would press for the reforms in the Legislative Yuan.

The alliance, comprising scholarly groups and societies, advocates reducing the number of seats in the legislature, changing the way legislators are elected and extending legislative terms to four years.

By the time lawmakers started their summer recess in June, the legislature had made little progress in setting up a special committee to decide on the details of the reform plan.

"The stalled program proves that it is impossible for legislators to do something that would deprive them of their power and interests even though so many of them pledged to carry out the reforms in 2001," said DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin.

The measures have been held up by disputes over how many lawmakers the legislature should have and on how the special legislative committee should be set up.

The DPP, which Hsu described as the driving force behind the reforms, wants to reduce the minimum number of lawmakers needed to vote to convene the special committee to less than half.

The DPP and its pan-green ally TSU suggested that the committee should convene upon request of one-fifth, or 45, of the lawmakers.

The ruling party advocates downsizing the legislature to 150 seats and using a "single-member district, two vote" election system.

A poll conducted by a group of pro-independence academics demonstrated public support for DPP plan to hold a referendum on legislative reform.

The results of the poll, conducted by the Taiwan Professors Association and released on July 6, showed that 67 percent of respondents agreed on the need for the referendum, while 74 percent supported halving the number of lawmakers.

Sixty percent of the 1,080 people interviewed agreed with the ruling party's plans for legislative reform.

The KMT, although it differs from the DPP regarding the special legislative committee, said it endorses the reform plans.

"The KMT supports legislative reform," said KMT legislative whip Tseng Yung-chuan.

Tseng said the party agreed with halving the number of legislative seats and that the KMT might initiate a legislative petition to get the reform program started.

But Hsu said the pan-blue camp might merely be trying to avoid future criticism from the pan-green camp.

"The remarks, at most, could be interpreted as a pan-blue tactic for the upcoming presidential election," Hsu said.

"A brutal battle between members of the KMT-PFP alliance to be nominated to run for a 225-seat legislature next year is already foreseeable. It goes without saying that the competition would become even more intense once the legislature becomes a 113-seat body," Hsu said.

But he remained optimistic about the effect a referendum could have on the reform movement.

"The price of ignoring the conclusions of a referendum would be extremely high. Neither a ruling nor opposition party would recklessly disregard the public consensus," he said.

DIPLOMACY: Wu Shu-chen delivered a letter from President Chen Shui-bian that asked Pope John Paul II to pray for peace for both sides of the Taiwan Strait

First lady Wu Shu-chen attended Pope John Paul II's Sunday Rosary at Castel Gandolfo, the pontiff's summer residence, and delivered a letter from President Chen Shui-bian that included an offer to help with post-war relief for Iraq.

In the letter, Chen also asked the pope to pray for peace for the people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, saying that Taiwan had experienced the fear of suffering long-term military threats.

The pope moved to his summer residence last week and yesterday held his first mass of the year there.

After the mass, Presidential Office spokesman James Huang pushed Wu in her wheelchair to approach the pope on the podium. She shook hands and chatted with him.

"The first lady congratulated the pope on the 25th anniversary of his assumption of papacy and also expressed good wishes for the pope's health," Huang said.

"The pope thanked the first lady for her sincerity in making the long journey [to see him], and asked her to send his greetings to President Chen and the Taiwanese people."

The letter, delivered by Wu as the president's special representative, was also based on the theme of peace. It said that Taiwan would follow the pope's teachings about peace.

Huang said that Chen mentioned in the letter that the first lady was acting as a special representative for him and the Taiwanese people.

The president said that the first lady's health was not suitable for long-distance travel, but because of her persistence in helping with Taiwan's diplomacy, she never considered the hardship she had to endure.

"The president also mentioned that Taiwan was still under military threat from China, and he hoped that the both China and Taiwan could follow faithfully the pope's peaceful doctrines of truth, justice, love and freedom," Huang said.

"President Chen also expressed Taiwan's willingness to work with the international community to build peace in the Middle East. He hoped that Taiwan could contribute to the post-war relief plan for Iraq, and said he was donating US$100,000 to the Vatican foundation for that cause."

Wu stressed that the pope was not in good health, but perhaps out of the concern for disadvantaged groups, he was not willing to let her, a woman in a wheelchair who traveled long way, to return with nothing accomplished.

So the pope took time out of his busy schedule to talk with her and her delegation, Wu said.

When Wu met the pope, many people were waving the ROC and Vatican national flags outside.

Wu had the chance to introduce all the members of her delegation to the pope, and the pope shook hands with the ambassador and officials in the delegation.

After a four-day trip to Berlin, Wu arrived at the Camillians armed forces airport in Rome on a private flight on Saturday afternoon.

Since Taiwan has official diplomatic ties with the Holy See, Wu was greeted with formal ceremonies, including a reception from the commander of the armed forces base and a military escort for the first lady's vehicle.

Yesterday morning she received the secretary-general of the Order of Camillians Fr. Luigi Galvan. She thanked the order for their efforts in setting up hospitals in eastern Taiwan and outlying islands since 1952.

When Chen celebrated his second year in office on May 20 last year, he volunteered at the Camillians-founded St. Mary's Hospital in Ilan for a day.

In the evening Wu visited the ancient remains in Rome, including the Piazza Navona and the Colosseum. She said that she had visited Rome some 20 years ago, before the accident that paralyzed her. This visit, as the first lady, meant much more diplomatically.