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Ex-premier says
independence is key goal
TAKING A STAND: Yu Shyi-kun said it was not the
DPP’s China policy that cost them January’s election and that ‘accepting’ KMT
ideology was far more dangerous
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun talks
during a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said
that China affairs are not the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) priority and
that the party should focus on the economy, winning a legislative majority and
securing its long-term goal of making Taiwan an independent, sovereign nation.
Yu also said he encouraged cross-strait engagement, but had reservations toward
former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) initiative of “constitutional one china”
(憲法一中).
Yu made his comments at a press conference where legislation to promote organic
agriculture in Taiwan was being outlined.
While increased engagement between the DPP and Beijing, as well as the
establishment of a China Affairs Committee would be welcomed, Yu said that
reviving Taiwan’s stagnant economy and stopping people’s suffering is more
important.
The biggest problem with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, said Yu
— who held the premiership for a record three years between 2002 and 2005 when
the DPP was in power — is that it is only trying to solve the issues at hand and
has lost sight of its mid-term and long-term goals.
Repeatedly asked to comment on Hsieh’s visit to China, Yu declined to offer his
views, but said all politicians who visit China should bear in mind that the
national interests and the dignity of the 23 million Taiwanese should be the
priority over individual gains.
However, Yu said that the DPP’s ultimate goal should be the normalization of the
country and reiterated that his long-standing position on the party’s China
policy remained in line with the 1999 resolution on Taiwan’s future, which had
been intended to make Taiwan an independent state by 2007, a resolution passed
when he served as DPP chairman.
That ambition does not conflict with the “Republic of China (ROC) is Taiwan and
Taiwan is [the] ROC” initiative of former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) he
said.
Yu said he refuted the conventional thinking that the DPP’s China policy was the
reason the party lost this year’s presidential election and would also be the
deciding factor in the 2016 presidential election and added that “giving up what
you believe in and accepting the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ideology is
what will keep the DPP from returning to power.”
“As far as I’m concerned, whether or not the DPP returns to power is secondary
to whether Taiwan can become a country in its own right,” he said.
The DPP is on its own in its quest to return to power, he said, as neither the
US, Japan or China favor the party’s return to office.
However, Yu said that winning the majority in the legislature — a task that the
DPP has never achieved — would be more important than winning the presidency and
he said that the legislature holds more power than the administrative branch
today.
Yu insisted this seemingly impossible goal is actually achievable.
Winning a further 17 seats three years from now in conjunction with the
pan-green camp — which currently holds a combined total 43 seats in the
legislature — would allow the political movement to take control of 60 of the
113 legislative seats, he said.
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