The leaders of Taiwan's two major opposition parties, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on the formation of an KMT-PFP alliance and agreed to run together on a joint ticket in next year's presidential election.
This would be the first time in Taiwan's political history that two parties have formed a coalition and teamed up on a single presidential ticket.
"In a bid to meet the expectations of the general public, the KMT and the PFP have agreed to promote party-to-party cooperation and form a KMT-PFP coalition," KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) told a news conference yesterday, reading from a joint statement issued by the KMT and PFP.
"On the issue of who to field on the joint ticket, Chairman Soong has stated that he will respect the opinion of Chairman Lien," said Lin, alluding to the manifesto issued by Soong on Wednesday that he would respect his KMT counterpart's decision on who should be the presidential candidate and who should take the slot as running mate.
"The two parties will act according to their respective party procedures to complete a democratic nomination process to seek the public's support and approval [for the ticket]," Lin said.
The joint declaration also stated that the two parties would form a coalition government and propose a so-called blueprint for national development to tackle problem issues such as the economy and cross-strait relations.
The memorandum of understanding stated that the two parties would form a "KMT-PFP Alliance Policy-making Committee" (國親聯盟決策委員會) which would serve the thrash out issues related to cooperation between the two parties.
Reading from the memorandum, Lin said: "The committee will be chaired by both Lien and Soong with Soong acting as the convener of the committee. Aside from uniting forces for the 2004 presidential election, the two parties also agree to work together for the 2004 legislative election to win a majority in the Legislative Yuan."
PFP spokesman Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said that although the memorandum of understanding was not legally binding, "it does act as a constraint to both parties."
At the press conference held at PFP headquarters following the 90-minute meeting between Lien and Soong, Lien acknowledged Soong's administrative experience and more than once praised him for "being selfless and magnanimous for the sake of a greater nation"
Lien's praise for Soong was a great contrast to the KMT's attitude in the runup to the last presidential election when the party accused Soong of embezzling huge sums of money from its coffers, waged a series of negative advertisements attacking Soong's credibility and integrity and painted Soong -- who then was running his own maverick campaign -- as a greedy and deceitful billionaire.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) won the 2000 presidential election with 39 percent of the vote. Soong, who ran as an independent, obtained 36 percent while Lien, the KMT's candidate, came in third place with 23 percent of the vote.
Niether Lien nor Soong explicitly said whether they had settled the question as to who would play which role in the campaign, but it was widely understood from Lien's remarks that Soong was to be his running mate.
"I am gratified that Soong, being selfless and magnanimous, has agreed to pair with me to run in the [2004] presidential race," said Lien. When asked by the media that whether his comments suggested that the KMT-PFP partnership would field a Lien-Soong ticket for next year's presidential election, Lien replied "your statement is correct."
In return, Soong praised Lien as "an individual of elegance and great sportsmanship."
Soong added the ticket would become official at the end of March or early April after the two parties completed their own nomination processes through their national party congresses.
Both Lien and Soong stressed that the KMT-PFP partnership was not of divvying up the spoil of offices, so called "booty sharing," but sharing the burden of responsibility to lead the nation to a better tomorrow.
"The KMT-PFP partnership is not a marriage of convenience but a marriage of good faith," Soong said.
"KMT-PFP cooperation is of a common morality and justice. We've agreed to cooperate for the sake of national development, Taiwan's future and people's welfare," Lien said.
Singling out Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Welcoming the pan-blue collaboration, Ma said he was "excited and gratified."
"I will certainly not be absent from the joint campaign team," Ma said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS