Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang's remarks come as a surprise. It is the first time the pan-blue camp has shown a shift toward independence.
We do not know whether Wang received approval from the campaign headquarters to make these remarks, but his proposal is not so sudden, given that PFP Legislator Liu Sung-pan (
The problem is this: the alliance has presented neither measures to accomplish this nor a gradually progressive schedule, and so the public is confused.
But the KMT has not changed its name, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
So, has the KMT-PFP alliance made an ideological U-turn, or is Wang presenting this strategy in an attempt to "save the nation from extinction?"
For the majority of people, KMT support of independence is beyond their imagination. From 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek (
Though former president Lee Teng-hui (
Returning to the KMT's "legally constituted authority," Lien presented the rule of Chiang Ching-kuo to demonstrate the party's sinicization and, at the same time, rejected the political path Lee had followed for 12 years.
Now, only 90 days away from the presidential election, Wang said that the KMT-PFP alliance would no longer mention the so-called "1992 consensus" and the notion of "one China, with each side making its own interpretation." Contradicting the past, he even said that the party "has never refuted the `one country on either side' platform."
In response, Lien said "this is Wang's personal opinion," indicating that the KMT's party platform is unchanged. If the KMT were to recognize the legality and rationality of independence, it actually has much to do.
For instance, the Guidelines for National Unification in the party platform should be scrapped, and Lien's stance that "one China is the Republic of China" must be changed. More importantly, the KMT-PFP version of the Referendum Law (
In view of this, even if we brush aside the question of whether Wang's "personal opinion" can benefit the pan-blue camp's election campaign, he might have placed a time bomb in their midst. It is worth observing whether this will do them more harm than good.
Chin Heng-wei is editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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