|
Chen Shui-bian
endorses Tsai from behind prison bars
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) endorsed Democratic Progressive Party
presumptive presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday, saying that he
had “full confidence” in Tsai and trusted her to lead the country.
The jailed former leader said he had no way to personally congratulate Tsai, who
won the party primary on Wednesday, but had instructed his son, Greater
Kaohsiung councilor Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), to offer Tsai his best wishes.
“I have full confidence in Tsai and I’m sure the Taiwanese people have even more
expectations for this presidential candidate,” Chen Shui-bian said in a
statement given out by his office. “I call on all my supporters, including the
One Side, One Country Alliance, to back Tsai and help her become Taiwan’s first
female president.”
Chen also praised former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who Tsai defeated in the
primary, saying the cautious and restrained primary the two fought was a model
“that would go down in history.”
Su endorsed Tsai immediately after the results of the official telephone polls
were announced on Wednesday, calling on his supporters to back Tsai as she heads
into the election.
“He set a model for sportsmanlike behavior with his ideas on ‘fighting, but not
battling,’” Chen Shui-bian said. “The Taiwanese people will never forget Su’s
political contributions in the past 30 years and his labors for Taiwan.”
He said he was concerned by the direction that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration was taking the country, adding that Tsai needed to “re-establish
homegrown governance to protect national sovereignty.”
“Only with Ma stepping down ... can the political butchering stop, can the
Taiwanese take back their values of fairness, can a broken society start to mend
and can the wrongly accused find redress and justice,” he said.
Chen Shui-bian is a polarizing figure within the DPP, but he can call on a large
cadre of political supporters within the party. However, serving a 17-and-a-half
year sentence for taking bribes and laundering money, the DPP has toed a fine
line when dealing with him.
Tsai has fought to downplay his influence in the party, saying earlier in the
primary that she would not make some of the same mistakes the former president
had made, including on cross-strait and environmental policy.
She also remained mum on whether she plans to pardon the former president if
elected.
Chen Shui-bian’s endorsement was the latest given to Tsai, one day after she
narrowly took the DPP nomination, beating Su by only 1.35 percentage points in
the official polls.
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), pro-independence stalwarts as well as
the DPP’s legislative caucus have also declared their support for Tsai, the DPP
chairperson who is expected to end her leave of absence sometime after
Wednesday.
“The DPP is full of confidence. We can win most of the popular vote and
successfully complete the third round of political turnovers,” DPP spokesperson
Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said of Tsai’s win in the primary.
|
