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Lien, Soong cover up own faults: Lee

Former president Lee Teng-hui lambasts the pan-blue camp for destroying democracy and the rule of law in Taiwan during a seminar held at Taipei International Convention Center yesterday. The seminar, organized by Taiwan Advocates, discussed the implications of the presidential election on the development of a civil society in Taiwan. PHOTO: CNA

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday said the opposition parties lost the presidential election because they went against the Taiwanese people's pursuit of an independent Taiwanese identity and expectations of a younger leadership generation.

"If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) cannot do a self-examination of its own problems and continues with the old leadership, it is dodging its problems and will eventually lose the competition in Taiwan's party politics," Lee said.

Lee said the KMT leaders' call for consolidating leadership was similar to what Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had been doing early in the 1950s, which Lee said was irrelevant to the people's well-being.

As the host of a seminar held by Taiwan Advocates to discuss the implications of the presidential election on the development of civil society in Taiwan, Lee lambasted KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) for being irresponsible in stirring up the demonstrations in front of the Presidential Office as a way to cover up their own faults.

Lee said Lien and Soong were not qualified to take the steering wheel of the country, as they have erred too much in being unwilling to concede their defeat in the election and leaving the demonstrating crowds on the streets to shoulder the responsibility for the chaos of an illegal assembly.

"It is such a pity that the defeated candidates were not willing to take their defeat and reflect on their loss, but stirred up demonstrations to cover up their own faults and even sacrifice the future development of their own party.

"They led their supporters to take to the streets, but then they left their supporters on the streets and went back home to sleep or, even worse, to play mahjong," Lee said.

He said that since the election, the public has to reexamine whether the rule of law is respected by the entire public and whether mutual trust and respect are undermined by media reports slanted by political influences.

Lee pinpointed certain political figures who concurrently hosted news talk shows, such as independent Legislator Sisy Chen (陳文茜), who he said have told lies and made groundless accusations to question the professionalism of social institutions.

"These accusations and verbal spam rife in Taiwanese society have eroded people's trust and respect for each other and for the country's social institutions," Lee said.

Lee, who yesterday made his first public appearance since the presidential election, also responded to the hot topic of ethnicity and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung's (沈富雄) recent remarks that political figures should stop cashing in on ethnic differences by accusing each other of not loving Taiwan.

"Some people recently have said that we should stop saying `I love Taiwan,' but I think all of the 23 million people of Taiwan should not avoid facing this question. Furthermore, the people of Taiwan have used their wisdom to judge what true love for Taiwan is by judging the difference between policies about Taiwan identity of the KMT and DPP," Lee said.

Sociologist Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌), a national policy advisor to the president, yesterday said at the seminar that the post-election demonstrations were never the continuation of social movements Taiwan's public started in the 1980s.

Hsiao said the past social movements were mostly oriented toward democratization or improvement of public policy, while the recent protests, which were mobilized by political forces for private interests,were just ugly.
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