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Oct.31,2000 --- To: Trent
Lott, Denny Hastert, Walter Schwimmer |
¡@ Dear¡@Mr. Trent Lott, Taiwan would be merged by world¡¦s mainstream of business investment at China. Yet despite their sharp differences on various important issues, President Chen and the main opposition KMT have reason to reconcile those differences. For Chen, he must seek to win the support and cooperation of the majority party, if he wants to ride out the political and economic difficulties troubling his administration. Politically, his minority government has been facing constant hostilities from the opposition-controlled Legislature, making it difficult for it to set new policies and gain passage of major bills. Chen would have been better positioned to deal with the opposition, had he come to power with greater popular support. He won only 39 percent of the vote. With regard to the economy, he needs to rebuild investor confidence. The lack of public faith in him and his administration has contributed to a host of painful economic problems: Steep stock price plunges, which take into account even the big gains recovered in the last three sessions; sluggish capital investment; a rise in unemployment and a potential threat of a financial crisis. Chen Shui Bian has a right to promote his own policies. After all, he was elected president and will remain so for four years to come. But we think he has blundered on the nuclear issue. Angry legislators may attempt to impeach the president, a move which can be pre-empted by the president dismissing the legislature and calling snap elections. If such a scenario actually happens, we can expect the political and financial chaos of recent months to gain steam. This will have negative effects on our economic development and harm Taiwan¡¦s priceless international image as a haven of democracy in Asia. Instead of issuing angry tirades from the bully pulpit, President Chen ought to be having more meetings with Lien Chan and other opposition leaders. Unfortunately, after what happened to Lien on Friday, it seems unlikely that any others will be willing to meet Chen for quite a while. In Chen¡¦s government, as a minority numbers in legislature, that ¡§parties conflicts¡¨ could confuse real focus on people¡¦s prosperity and wants. KMT may try to impeach Chen over Power plant decision Oct. 29, 2000 --- Top Kuomintang (KMT) officials indicated they were more inclined to try to impeach President Chen Shui-bian than topple the Cabinet in the wake of Friday¡¦s sudden announcement that the fourth nuclear power plant would not be completed. ¡§Impeaching President Chen has already become a serious and practical issue. Public opinion has led us to have this feeling, and the KMT is seriously considering it,¡¨ KMT spokesman Jason Hu said. Hu¡¦s comments followed on the heels of strong statements from KMT chairman Lien Chan. Lien, who was defeated handily by Chen in the presidential elections earlier this year, called on his party to get rid of the causes of today¡¦s chaos tale care of the problems Taiwan is now faced with. Lien was reportedly incensed on Friday when the government announced its final decision on the power plant just shortly after Lien and Chen completed what was to be a reconciliatory meeting. According to Hu, recent opinion polls show that there is more support now for impeaching Chen than for introducing a no-confidence vote against the Executive Yuan. Political observers have also suggested that the KMT, which holds an absolute majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan, might not be willing to see a vote of no-confidence passed. Under the Constitution, Chen would have the option of dissolving the lawmaking body if the Cabinet was dissolved, an option that he would be expected to take advantage of. And according to analysts, the KMT might not fare well against the People First Party (PFP) if legislative elections were held today. That could explain why PFP lawmakers, in addition to preparing to ask the Control Yuan to impeach the premier, are already collecting signatures to introduce no-confidence vote next week. For such a vote to be held, a third of all legislators would have to sign off on a petition. To pass, a simply majority of lawmakers would have to vote in favor for the measure. That would mean that the KMT could kill any such vote if lawmakers voted along party lines. By contrast, only one-fourth of all lawmakers would have to agree in order for a vote to be held on whether to remove President Chen from office. To be passed, though, two-thirds of the Legislative Yuan would have to be in favor. Some legal experts point out, though, that there are no established procedures for impeaching the president at this point. The Constitution was recently revised to give the Legislative Yuan the power to impeach both the president and vice president. But at the present, the procedural details of how such a vote would be handled are not in place, one legal scholar said, adding that if the KMT wants to impeach Chen, they would have to first pass a bill on how to go about doing so. With the KMT¡¦s strength in numbers and the current level of outrage against Chen¡¦s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), that might not be too difficult. The previous air of non-partisan cooperation that was beginning to develop earlier is now nowhere to be seen, analysts said. According to senior DPP lawmaker Hsu Tain-tsar, the current political situation is very tense. He related that an attempt to even shake the hand of a KMT lawmaker was met with the remark ¡§shaking hands won¡¦t do any good.¡¨ Hsu predicted that the KMT will definitely try to take retaliation for the decision to scrap Taiwan¡¦s fourth nuclear power plant. One possible target for the KMT¡¦s wrath could be the proposed fiscal budget for the upcoming fiscal year. KMT spokesman Jason Hu said that KMT lawmakers will meet on Monday to discuss whether to reject the budget proposal. Along those lines, senior KMT lawmaker Her Jyh-huei said that reviewing a budget now that the Executive Yuan has revealed that it will not necessarily implement a finalized budget would be meaningless. Her pledged that his party would fight with the DPP to the end for its trampling of the Constitution and disregard for the rule of law. The PFP, for their part, has taken a softer stance on the issue of the budget, saying that they would like to finish reviewing the proposal, albeit with significant revisions. In our view, a series of Chen¡¦s administration could be flighting off by simply majority of KMT¡¦s lawmakers. Mr. Nat Bellocchi the former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan said in August 8th, 2000 ¡K ¡§The reason for this search is Taiwan¡¦s need to overcome its own past actions and those of the PRC and the US. Efforts by the PRC to undermine Taiwan¡¦ identity in the international community not only continue but have intensified to include non-government institutions. By politicizing membership regardless of the purpose of the institution or organization, the PRC maximizes its influence. It has been very successful, though apparently its recent effort to inject its ¡§one China¡¨ principle into Taiwan WTO membership is likely to fail.¡¨ ¡§The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), section 4D, contains the statement that ¡§Nothing in this Act may be construed as a basis for supporting the exclusion or expulsion of Taiwan from continued membership in any international financial institution or any other international organization.¡¨ ¡§This means that Taiwan for the foreseeable future is faced with the daunting challenge of pursuing its need for ¡§international breathing space¡¨ in three directions. First is to continue to nurture and strengthen those countries that have found it in their interest to maintain full diplomatic relations with Taiwan. That does provide some basis for claiming sovereignty under the definitions that exist today and that the PRC is still clinging to it.¡¨ ¡§Second is the need to pursue other means under which Taiwan can participate in international organizations as an interim step. Although it already participates in the Asia Development Bank and APEC, its membership in WTO could go a long way to build international credibility, and perhaps more importantly even in the PRC, that its presence in fact is beneficial. The effort need not be restricted to organizations that do not require statehood, despite the lack of support from the U.S., and opposition from the PRC. There are many financial, development and other institutions where Taiwan can make a strong case, but will need persistence to overcome.¡¨ ¡§And third it the need to vigorously continue what has been started by the recent NGO conference in Taipei. NGOs, corporate foundations, will have to understand how important their contribution can be in strength-ening Taiwan¡¦s international presence. As the NGO movement throughout the world grows and its role in international affairs increases, Taiwan should be left out. It is better to defend one¡¦s interest from the inside than to be a supplicant on the outside.¡¨ It is very ridiculous, in what we have known that would achieve unification with mainland China urgently, as followers:
Obviously; Chen¡¦s government would step into the ¡§crisis of Democracy¡¨. Taiwan needs your help, and say something for supporting Chen¡¦s administration.
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