Responding to a request by the opposition alliance that the Demo-cratic Progressive Party (DPP) sign a "three noes" promise to stop negative campaigning, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said that his opponents should also pledge commitment to "three positives" -- sincerity, constructiveness and reform.
"I think the opposition's `three noes' are not enough; we need to more strongly promote the `three positives,'" Chen said yesterday.
For the past two days Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), Cloud Gate Dance Theater's artistic director and founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and Formosa Plastics Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) have been running a joint statement in local Chinese-language newspapers urging the presidential candidates to put an end to mud-slinging in their campaigns and rather confront the weighty issues that concern Taiwan's future.
While heavyweights from both the DPP and the opposition alliance have expressed their support and respect for the statement, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) said that the advertisement was a sign of disappointment on the part of Lee and Lin, who had been vocal in their support for Chen during the 2000 presidential election.
The KMT-PFP alliance responded to the advertisement with a pledge that included "three noes:" not to create chaos by supporting organized crime, not to cause racial tension and not to place Taiwan in danger.
Chen said yesterday that he is willing to fully cooperate with and support the KMT and PFP's "three noes," but urged his opponents to support his positive approach.
"I hope that we can jointly achieve three goals. The first is to be open and transparent and be faithful and sincere towards the people and the land; the second is to advocate genuine policies, not just empty words; the third is to press forward with reforms. The people cannot move backwards; reforms must continue. That's what we need," Chen said.
Lin yesterday reaffirmed his support for Chen's administration at a media conference held to clear the air after the publication of the advertisement, which has in some quarters been read as a sign of wavering support.
Lin said yesterday that he met Chen at a tea party on the day the statement was published.
"I gave a talk at the party, showing approval for the government's energy and ambitions to promote cultural affairs over the past three years," he said.
"When President Chen came to Pali to see Cloud Gate practice in 2000, he said `as long as we could walk over the wall of ideologies,' and identify with the power of culture in a sentimental way, then Taiwan's local culture could link up with international cultures, and there would be no wall between Taiwan's and China's culture," Lin said.
"I was moved by the tolerance shown by President Chen, and yesterday I said that there was still much to be desired in current society to move toward President Chen's vision of walking over the wall," he said.
Lin said that if people asked him whom he would vote for in the election in March, his answer would be that he would do what he has done in the past: examine each candidate's platform and behavior closely and then make a decision.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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