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2012 ELECTIONS: DPP,
TSU pan Ma for rash pact talk
WRONG TREE: The DPP and TSU said the president
was polarizing the electorate by playing up ethnicity after mentioning his
‘cardinal sin’ of being a Mainlander
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU)
yesterday panned President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for what they said was his
impetuousness over a proposed peace accord with China and playing the ethnic
card to manipulate the January presidential election.
Speaking at a campaign stop in Greater Taichung, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen
(蔡英文) questioned why Ma has failed to understand by now public doubts about his
initiative of a peace agreement with China.
People are concerned because they wonder how Taiwan’s sovereignty could be
preserved by a peace agreement based on the “one China” principle and why Ma
chose to throw out the highly controversial proposal with no public discussion
nor consensus less than three months before a major election, said Tsai, who is
the DPP presidential candidate.
The third concern is about the content of the peace agreement, she said, asking:
“Will the agreement be approved by the president alone or by the Chinese
Nationalist Party [KMT] and the Chinese Communist Party?”
“Will Taiwanese be able to determine the future of their country by referendum?”
she added.
Ma has not explained these issues clearly, she said.
“On top of that, Ma’s flip-flopping positions on major cross-Taiwan Strait
issues and the ensuing political maneuvers have caused more concern,” Tsai said.
Tsai said she was surprised that Ma has used what he termed “the cardinal sin of
being a Mainlander who was not born in Taiwan” as an argument against people’s
doubts on his ability to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty.
In a democratic Taiwan with a diverse culture, Tsai said, “no ethnicity — not
Hoklo, Mainlander, Hakka nor Aborigine and new immigrants — bears cardinal
sins.”
Cross-strait political negotiations and referendums are not issues of ethnicity,
but issues of identification with the homeland and shared belief of the 23
million Taiwanese, she added.
A qualified president is supposed to identify problems and find solutions,
rather than steering the nation toward polarized conflicts for the benefit of
his own presidential campaign, which is immoral and irresponsible, she said.
Meanwhile, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) accused Ma of being a “racist”
after the president chose the phrase “cardinal sin” in his retaliation to
Huang’s lawsuit on Saturday.
Huang filed a lawsuit against Ma and former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su
Chi (蘇起) on Thursday, accusing the two of treason by conspiring with China to
create the so-called “1992 consensus,” which Huang said had never existed.
Speaking at an event in Tanzih District (潭子), Greater Taichung, Huang said he
mentioned nothing about Ma’s place of birth in his lawsuit, adding that “people
question Ma for what he has said and done, not where he was born.”
“If place of birth was the only — and the most important — thing he could think
of, I can only say he is a racist at heart,” Huang said.
Former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was not born in Taiwan, Huang said, but
Chiang’s commitment to the country has never been questioned.
“Taiwanese trust Chiang more than Ma because their attitudes toward China were
completely different. Ma should take a good look at himself and think about
that,” Huang said.
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