Lee Teng-hui calls for new country

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday reiterated the significance of fostering a sense of national identification.

Strong identification with their homeland can help a people build a new country, establish a clear national goal, and unite the strength of people so as to pursue the country's interests.

By the same token, a society with an identity disorder not only cannot build a new country, but might vanish altogether through the interference of and attacks by outside forces, he said.

The ex-president made the remarks via a satellite video broadcast to a meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (世台會) in Japan.

Formed by overseas Taiwanese, the independence-minded group is holding its 29th annual meeting in Tokyo from yesterday through tomorrow.

Approximately 600 members worldwide are attending the event.

Although Lee was invited to the meeting, his daughter Annie Lee (李安妮) and TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) attended on his behalf.

Lee said that strengthening the identification of all people in Taiwan with the island they had helped to build was the solution to Taiwan's main problems, both its internal fissiparousness and its lack of international recognition.

Lee told the group that after witnessing the peaceful transfer of power two years ago, he thought he might leave politics and enjoy his retirement.

But he could not do as he wished because the political situation was not stabilized after the shift of power, and the people have lost faith in the government as a result.

The root of the current chaos is the "sour loser" mindset of opposition leaders, Lee said.

Refraining from identifying KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) by name, Lee said the losers in the election were reluctant to acknowledge their defeat: "They ganged up together to act against the government."

Domestically opposition parties boycotted all policies presented by the DPP, while externally they sought to unite with the Chinese communists to attack the government.

To save the nation from falling apart, Lee said he felt obliged to come out to continue fighting for the future of Taiwan.

He said the results of the election last year showed that the people support the line of recognizing Taiwan, and detest the mistaken idea of collaborating with China.

Lee's appeal to build a new country excited the morale of the attendees who chanted "victory to building a new country," and "long live Taiwan," in response to Lee's speech.

Others present at the meeting included Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), the incoming president of the Examination Yuan, Chairman of the World United Formosans for Independence Ng Chiautong (黃昭堂), Taiwan's representative to Japan Lo Fu-chuan (羅福全), Tokyo-based national policy advisor Alice King (金美齡) and several TSU lawmakers.

Sources said Lee could not attend the meeting because the Japanese government would not grant him a visa, except for the purposes of having a medical examination.

Lee was in Japan in April last year for treatment of his heart ailment. He has expressed his desire to visit again, but his wish has not yet been fulfilled.