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Ma, Wang clear up confusion

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, left, and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, face the press after meeting at Wang's residence for more than an hour to discuss whether President Chen Shui-bian had asked Wang to form a new Cabinet. PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday to clear up confusion over comments made about the premiership.

Both Ma and Wang later dismissed a media report carried in yesterday's evening paper saying that Ma had apologized for a "blunder" he had made.

Ma on Sunday said that Wang would be selected to head a new Cabinet. However, both Wang and the Presidential Office immediately denied Ma's comments.

After his 90-minute meeting with Ma yesterday, Wang told reporters that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had not asked him to head the reorganized Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government during a meeting on Saturday, but had discussed the issue with him.

Wang said he suggested to the president that Ma would make a good premier.

Ma told reporters that his sole intention in making the premiership issue public was to "protect" Wang, and insisted that it would require party-to-party talks.

He also said he would be happy to discuss the issue with the president.

Wang thanked Ma for making the effort to "protect" him and said that there was no communication problem between him and Ma.

Wang yesterday said a Cabinet reshuffle was one of the topics he discussed with the president on Saturday and that he had never considered taking up the job, nor did he want to.

"We first talked about the arms procurement plan, then about the confirmation of the president's selection of Control Yuan members and then cross-strait issues," Wang said. "We then talked about the Cabinet reshuffle and other important government bills."

When speaking about the government reorganization, Wang said the president has several options at hand, including retaining Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), appointing another DPP member as premier or recruiting an opposition member to head the administration.

As both the president and Ma have expressed a wish to speak to each other, Wang said that a meeting was necessary and that he was willing to act as a broker to make it possible.

Regarding the arms procurement plan, Ma has made it clear that he will let the KMT caucus handle the issue.

Wang yesterday said the party's arms procurement plan task force will make a recommendation to the caucus.

Wang yesterday also met with former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and informed him of the matter.

Wang said Lien did not comment in detail on the issue, saying only "good."

Wang said he hopes to arrange a time to meet with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) in the near future as well as New Party and Non-partisan Solidarity Union leaders.

The KMT caucus yesterday acknowledged the Wang-Ma meeting, saying the two need to talk things over in a bid to resolve misunderstandings and ease tension.

Meanwhile, four DPP lawmakers yesterday said they were opposed to recruiting an opposition member to head the government and called on the president to continue reform.

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