Editorial: Lien at a loss for a leg to stand on

Much to everyone's surprise Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) announced that if elected president next year, he will immediately convene the National Assembly to amend the Constitution. This was not the first time, however, that Lien has made a dramatic U-turn on campaign and policy proposals. These about-faces have been occurring with increasing frequency and usually after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the Democratic Progressive Party made a similar proposal. It looks as if the pan-blue camp's campaign team is in trouble.

Lien's announcement on Friday would not have been so surprising if he hadn't been so dismissive when Chen said last month that he would, if re-elected, push for the writing of a new constitution by 2006. Lien's response: "boring." Guess he discovered it wasn't so boring after all.

It is never advisable to respond to a rival's announcements with off-the cuff remarks, especially condescending ones. Unless the pronouncement is completely outrageous, it is always advisable for a politician to observe the response of the general public before formulating an official response. If you disagree with what was said then you should be able to say why -- and propose better alternatives.

Lien's initial response reflected at least two things -- that he genuinely opposes amending the Constitution and that his campaign advisors are not doing their job. After all, pan-blue lawmakers have boycotted the DPP's invitations to negotiate on revamping the Constitution on at least four occasions. Had Lien maintained his position, he might have at least earned respect for sticking to his guns, even from those who disagree with him.

If he really has changed his mind, the least he could do was come up with a better plan for a new constitution than the one proposed by the DPP. But the proposals outlined by Lien on Friday -- government restructuring, halving the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan, lowering the minimum voting age to 18 -- were not as detailed as the DPP's blueprint, although they seemed to copy the DPP on several points.

The constitution issue is the latest in a series of copycat moves by the Lien camp. His campaign team released a white paper on women's policy on Friday -- only to be accused by the head of DPP's women's department of copying that party's white paper from the 2000 presidential election.

Earlier, the pan-blue camp made such an abrupt U-turn on the referendum issue -- from strong opposition to all-out support -- it's surprising that its supporters didn't develop a case of whiplash. Of course, one might wonder why the proposed referendum bill is still stuck in the Legislative Yuan now that the pan-blue camp is supporting it.

After US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said that the US did not think a referendum on World Health Organization (WHO) participation by Taiwan would be helpful to Taipei's cause, Lien -- perhaps to show he truly supported the people's right to hold referendums -- said no other country should interfere with such rights. Yet when Chen was accused of upsetting the US by indicating that he would not bow to Washington's pressure on issues such as a national referendum, Lien said the government should avoid hurting US-Taiwan relations.

Lien appears so desperate to win next year -- and remove the blot on his copybook from leading the KMT into complete humiliation in the last presidential election -- he's willing to say anything. The pan-blue camp's shifting back and forth on so many issues is enough to make observers seasick.

The voters don't want to hear platitudes and promises -- they have had enough of those. What they want is for both Chen and Lien to put some forth substantive plans and clearly developed policy proposals.