A more practical approach to national sovereignty should be adopted to replace the old concepts dominated by a "greater China consciousness," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday.
Chen said that doing this would not only be helpful to the nation's unity and ethnic harmony but would also facilitate the next round of constitutional reforms.
He was speaking at a forum hosted by the Taiwan Law Society entitled "Sovereignty, Constitution and the Future of Taiwan."
Chen said that "an illusory and ossifying `greater China ideology'" had severely confused Taiwan's national status and identity for five decades.
As a result, procrastination had hampered the development of democracy and constitutional government, he said.
"It will be impossible for Taiwan to become a normal country enjoying independent sovereignty, freedom and democracy unless it frees itself from this unrealistic political dogma," Chen said, adding that it was due to "greater China consciousness" that comprehensive changes to the Constitution had been obstructed, despite seven rounds of constitutional reforms in the past decade.
Chen sought to emphasize the importance of establishing "sovereignty consciousness" during the new round of constitutional reforms.
"If a person loses the power and will to be his own master, and listens to everything as if it were someone else's command, the person then would then be tantamount to a scarecrow -- having a body but no soul," he said. "So when we talk about sovereignty, it is not just about the right to be your own master, but more importantly, to have the desire to be your own master."
With the nation's democratization, the public's hope to be its own master was realized, and the gradual shaping of a lucid and unequivocally national "sovereignty consciousness" had begun, Chen said.
Chen reiterated that "the Republic of China is an independent, sovereign state, its sovereignty belongs to all people in Taiwan and only the 23 million people of Taiwan have the right to determine its future."
He said this was not only consistent with democratic principles but also honestly reflected the reality of the cross-strait status quo.
"With the establishment of a new discourse on national sovereignty and the fading of an old ideology, Taiwan is ready for across-the-board constitutional reforms," Chen said, adding that the passage of the constitutional amendment package by the National Assembly earlier this month was evidence of this.
The package included the abolition of the National Assembly and the granting of referendum powers to the public to approve constitutional amendments proposed by the Legislative Yuan.
After the assembly voted, Chen had vowed to speed up a second phase of constitutional reform.
Chen yesterday expressed confidence in the progress of this new round of reforms, and repeated his hope of delivering a Constitution more suited to Taiwan within three years.
"The second phase of constitutional reform re-engineering will not be more difficult than the first phase," Chen said. "I am confident that a timely, relevant and viable Constitution for Taiwan will be delivered before my term expires in 2008."
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun had previously said that Chen's plan to introduce the second phase of reforms would not touch on such sensitive political issues as the national title, independence or sovereign territory.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS