Task force ready to go in 10 days

The cross-party task force which President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) authorized President of Academia Sinica Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) to set up will be formally established within the next 10 days. It is expected to form the basis of a new framework for Taiwan's government to negotiate with Beijing, sources said yesterday.

"This framework can only be formed after domestic consensus has been reached," sources from the Presidential Office said. "President Chen hopes the task force can build a concrete framework which will become the standard for dealing with cross-strait affairs for the next five to 10 years."

The establishment of a cross-party task force was one of Chen's campaign promises. Lee said that he is confident he will be able to lead his team in successfully restoring dialogue between Taiwan and China, which was terminated when former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) proposed his "special state-to-state" (兩國論) model last July.

Sources also revealed that the composition of the task force still remained undecided because of differences of opinion between the Presidential Office and Lee Yuan-tseh.

A Presidential Office official told the Taipei Times that Lee insisted all major political parties should be invited to join the task force as a symbol of national reconciliation. However, vice secretary-general of the National Security Council Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) thinks consensus will be hard to reach if the task force requires politicians who have totally different ideologies to sit down together.

"The capabilities of the task force members is more important than their positions," a Presidential Office official told the Taipei Times.

"Officials said that President Chen authorized Chiou to decide the list but Chiou was worried that clashes of ideology would be a barrier to the task force in passing any concrete resolutions," the official added.

"It could turn out just like the National Unification Council (NUC), when President Lee invited a lot of political heavyweights from different parties to be council members, but then never adopted any of their suggestions," the official said.

The make-up of the task force is still under discussion and will be revealed at the beginning of July. Sources said that the list will be composed of 20 to 30 people, most of whom will come from academic and civilian circles.

Scholars who may be invited include Byron Weng (翁松燃), a political scientist at National Chi-Nan University, Hsiao Hsin-huang (蕭新煌), research fellow at Academia Sinica, and Kao Ying-mao (高英茂), a political scientist at Brown University in the United States, said sources.

Government officials will also join the task force, such as the chairwoman of Mainland Affairs Council Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), consulting members of the National Security Council Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Ko Chen-en (柯承恩) and some officials from the Ministry of Defense, another sources revealed.

"As to the parties' representatives, Lee needs more time to discuss this with Chiou," sources said.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Yuan's plan to establish its own cross party task force fell apart when negotiations to set it up failed on Friday.

Presidential Office officials say that President Chen is considering inviting the legislative caucus leaders of all the major parties to become members of the task force.

DPP lawmaker Parris Chang (張旭成) said yesterday that the public put their trust in Lee by voting for Chen in the presidential election, but whether this task force could work successfully would depend on how much power the president gives Lee.