Time for change, Lee says

MOVE FORWARD: The former president told students at the Lee Teng-Hui school that circumstances for the creation of a Republic of Taiwan were now favorable

By Chang Yun-Ping

STAFF REPORTER

Former president Lee Teng-hui yesterday said Taiwan should seize the moment and get behind President Chen Shui-bian's bid for a second term.

Speaking for a second day at his own political think tank, the Lee Teng-hui School, Lee told students that the next four years would be crucial in the campaign to change the nation's name to Taiwan. Only President Chen was capable of realizing this change, Lee said.

"This is a delicate moment and Taiwanese people must wake up and seize this moment in order to secure the continuation of local power led by Chen," Lee said.

Lee also said his appointment as president in 1988 when Chiang Ching-kuo -- son of Taiwan's longtime dictator Chiang Kai-shek -- died in office, was "accidental," and not an "absolute" result plotted by Chiang Ching-kuo to choose a Taiwanese national leader. Some supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) believe that Chiang Ching-kuo intentionally put Taiwan on its path to democratization by appointing Taiwanese-born Lee as his political successor.

"Some people think that I was made president on purpose, but as a matter of fact, it was just accidental," Lee said yesterday.

"He [Chiang] didn't think he was going to die so soon, so I was just an interim vice-president. He didn't mean to appoint me as his successor. He never thought that way," Lee said.

Lee said the campaign to change the nation's name to Taiwan was equivalent to a naturally occurring event that took place when circumstances were favorable. The former president added that circumstances in Taiwan were now favorable for turning the country into a "complete and normal" independent state.

"History is not retrogressive," Lee said. "What happened in the past can't be changed. For 300 years, Taiwan was ruled as a colony by foreign powers -- a destiny we wanted to change but could not. However, we can now determine our own future. This is a fortuitous moment in history and we must make an effort to earn it."

He said Taiwan's recent move to add "Taiwan" to Republic of China (ROC) passports was an encouraging initiative toward the ultimate goal of changing the nation's name from ROC to Taiwan and formally establish a nation called the Republic of Taiwan.

Lee also said that the reason he advocated the concept of a Republic of Taiwan was to provide a new vision and evoke the public's passion after being disheartened by President Chen's failed "new middle ground" policy that had intended to tone down the Democratic Progressive Party's push for independence.

Meanwhile, in an interview published by the Washington Post yesterday, the former president said that China wouldn't dare launch a military attack at Taiwan if it declared independence because Beijing was fearful of the US' military muscle. He also suggested that China would be constrained by the fact that it is scheduled to host the Summer Olympics in 2008.

"We really need to see whether the Beijing government has the power to launch this kind of attack," the Post quoted Lee as saying. "It seems to me that China is not in the position to act. It is afraid of the United States. The Beijing government does not dare to challenge US military strength. Now is the time."

Lee told the Post that the "Chinese have a strange sense of history, with their obsession with 5,000 years of their culture.

"When you meet an Italian, you don't see him dreaming about the greatness of Rome, do you? How can modern people have such ideas? They think that everything belongs to them, even Japan, not to mention Taiwan," Lee said.

Experts caution on referendum issue

DIRECT DEMOCRACY: International experts have lauded Taiwan's enthusiasm to introduce referendums, but warned that the process must not polarize the country

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER

A national referendum may be the only way to address Taiwan's national identity problem, but referendums should not be introduced simply to meet that end, international referendum experts said yesterday.

Five such experts yesterday talked about their experiences with these democratic mecha-nisms at the International Symposium on Initiatives, Referendums and Direct Democracy in Taipei.

The government is drafting a referendum law following President Chen Shui-bian's announcement that referendums on certain issues will be conducted simultaneously with next year's presidential election.

The international experts have consulted with government officials on how to draft the law.

While applauding the government's enthusiasm to introduce referendums to the country, they cautioned that proper referendum rules and procedures have to be established first.

The experts expressed concern about the possibility of holding a referendum to decide Taiwan's national identity, a move that is believed to favor the ideals of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).

The referendum process has an important role to play in determining state identity and independence, said Theo Schiller, professor of political science at Marburg University in Germany.

"But I cannot recommend that the Taiwanese people introduce referendums in order to make a decision about independence. I can only say if this country must approach a decision on independence, it should only be on the basis of the referendum process," Schil-ler said.

Referendums, when applied to important issues such as the fundamental existence of a country, should not become a process to polarize the country, but should be carried out to build consensus and unity, Schiller said.

Dane Waters, president of the US Initiative and Referendum Institute, said that the government needs to consider "what tools we can use to make the people more sovereign and ensure their sovereign rights" when drafting the referendum law.

"Many people believe Taiwan's national identity issue can be addressed through a referendum. That may be true. However, we also have to discuss how to empower the citizens and fully undertake the endeavor by putting in place proper rules and procedures to let it happen," Waters said.

He said Taiwan can set an example for other Asian countries by bringing referendums to its people.

Usually it is the people who call for a referendum -- it is extremely rare that a government takes the initiative to carry out referendums.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP), which are more pro-China, have responded positively toward the introduction of referendums.

But their embracing of referendums is only lip-service, Joseph Wu, deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, said. He presented a historical account of the development of referendums in Taiwan at the symposium.

The government has proposed non-binding or consultative referendums, but Bruno Kaufmann, president of Europe's Initiative and Referendum Institute, said the government should rather consider introducing binding referendums.

Some governments do not like initiatives and referendums, because these processes are usually initiated by dissatisfied citizens. In these cases the referendums tend to be non-binding, because the government wants the freedom to make the final decision, Kaufmann said.

The role of the media in educating the public about referendums is also a vital part of the processes, Andreas Gross, a member of the Swiss parliament and vice president of the Council of Europe, said.

"Direct democracy is about communication," he said.

One of the most important referendum issues in Taiwan is whether to continue the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Adrian Schmid, former chairman of Switzerland's Green Party, talked about how nuclear power issues have been handled by referendums in Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Italy and other European countries.

The pan-blues' jive talk is off beat

The pan-blues' latest strategy for trying to avoid embarrassing questions about their relationship with China has apparently been acquired from the Shaggy album Hotshot, in particular the strategy outlined by Shaggy in It wasn't me to solve the problem of his friend RikRok.

RikRok's difficulty is succinctly laid out in the chorus: "Honey came in and she caught me red-handed, creeping with the girl next door/Picture this we were both butt-naked banging on the bathroom floor/How could I forget that I had given her an extra key?"

Shaggy's advice to his friend is simply to deny everything, say "it wasn't me." RikRok finds this strategy unconvincing given the long list of places where his girlfriend has witnessed his antics -- "she even caught me on camera." Shaggy insists; tell her anything you like but don't admit to what was so embarrassingly obvious; "convince her, say you're gay/Never admit to a word when she say."

This is exactly the strategy the pan-blues have adopted when faced with allegations considering their now widely known conspiracy with China. The allegations were raised again by President Chen Shui-bian in an interview with The Washington Post last week. Of course they are nothing new. Two years ago the US academic Bonnie Glaser earned the Chinese Nationlist Party's (KMT) displeasure when she reported that Chinese officials she had been in contact with in Beijing were quite open about their strategy sessions with visiting KMT aparatchiks.

Since then the pan-blue camp has followed a legislative agenda that seems to be almost drawn up by China. Recently the KMT had to ban its legislators from going to China to celebrate the PRC's national day on Oct. 1. A number of pan-blue legislators had been invited for what the invites called "contributions to the interests of China." The pan-blues realize that getting into bed with China is not a vote winner in Taiwanese elections. They also have discovered that even with their lockhold on the majority of Taiwan's media, their extensive interactions across the Taiwan Strait cannot be suppressed for ever. So as well as requiring their camp followers to be more cautious, they are also hoping that outright denial is going to work: "It wasn't us."

People First Party Chairman James Soong, in fact, went one better than this yesterday by trying to suggest that these allegations were so preposterous that there must have been some mistake. Chen should come forward publicly and explain whether he indeed said such hurtful things, Soong said. Then he slipped into another diversionary tactic, claiming that Chen "looks down on the Taiwanese people."

How Chen looks down on the people by telling The Post the truth, we do not know. Soong has shown his contempt for the Taiwanese a number of times -- such as in his suppression of Taiwanese-language broadcasting when he was head of the Government Information Office, in the lies he told to cover up KMT murders in the 1980s and in his engineering of Elmer Feng's libel case against Chen to provide a reason for jailing Chen in the mid-1980s.

Even in the last presidential election campaign we had a wonderful example of this contempt as Soong tried to explain away the Chung Hsing Bills Finance scandal and the accusation that he had robbed his own party with a story that changed every day and which a three-year-old could see through. It's obvious here who is "insulting the people of Taiwan."

Soong insults our intelligence and sense of morality every time he stands up to speak.

Soong did make one useful suggestion however. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should go public with what is known about the pan-blues and China. DPP Legislator Trong Chai's Alliance Against Selling Out Taiwan no doubt has some juicy evidence. Let's make it public so the "It wasn't us" defense is seen for the nonsense it is.