KMT tells Hsieh to apologize

DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) wants to improve relations with the KMT but until he eats his words there's nothing doing.

Hsieh said yesterday that he would like to meet his KMT counterpart Lien Chan (連戰) in two weeks after Lien returns from a trip to Europe.

But KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) reacted coolly to the proposal, calling such a meeting "unnecessary and meaningless."

The KMT is still angry at Hsieh over remarks he made on Sept. 30 concerning the party's corruption during its 55 years in power.

Hsieh told an audience in Tainan that one of the reasons the KMT was so strongly supportive of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant might be because corrupt practices had been involved in the allocation of contracts for the plant, the benefits of which some KMT members were loath to give up.

Hsieh went on to say: "The KMT is corrupt in many things, even when buying a pair of socks or a lunch box, not to mention the NT$200 billion Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. They [the KMT] must have been corrupt on this as well."

Lin said yesterday: "Hsieh has to apologize publicly first for defaming the KMT before any talks can proceed. Otherwise, there is nothing to exchange views on."

The KMT filed a slander suit against Hsieh on Nov. 9 for the remarks. Hsieh responded to the suit by saying that he had only been arguing that "... there exists a `reasonable doubt' in respect to the nuclear power plant case."

Lin yesterday also said that Lien had not informed him of a planned meeting with Hsieh before he departed for Europe on Wednesday.

DPP Secretary General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), on the other hand, had said on Wednesday that a Hsieh-Lien meeting scheduled for two weeks' time was billed as a courtesy call in return for Lien's visit on Aug. 2, adding that the KMT had responded with goodwill but that no exact date nor agenda had yet been set. Hsieh himself further added yesterday that the party "would respect Lien's arrangements."

"We will wait until Lien returns from his trip in two weeks to decide when to meet and what to talk about," Hsieh told reporters in Kaohsiung, adding that the aim was to decrease the animosity between the ruling party and the main opposition party.

After hearing Lin's remarks, yesterday, however, Wu responded angrily and questioned whether Lin had been authorized by Lien to make such comments.

"If so, then shouldn't the KMT apologize first for the numerous arrests [made by the then ruling party] during the Formosa Incident? There will be no end [to such tit-for-tat moves]," Wu said.

Hsieh, as the convener of the president's five-member team for negotiation with opposition parties, has been active in resuming dialogue with Lien and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to discuss possible constitutional reform, holding a National Affairs Conference and a proposal endorsed by the DPP's central standing committee to cut the current number of legislative seats, 225, by half. No major breakthroughs have been achieved since the five-member team was designated three weeks ago to ease the standoff between the ruling and opposition parties.

The opposition alliance has been arguing, moreover, that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has continued to ignore the alliance's six requests regarding constitutional issues. The four other members of the five-member team include Secretary-General to the president Yu Shyi-kun, Cabinet Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), DPP legislative whip Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) and Wu, who will accompany Hsieh in future inter-party talks.