Responding to the call from some pan-green academics for him to voluntarily resign, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday vowed to spend the rest of his term realizing his 2004 campaign platform, including constitutional reform.
"The president appreciates the opinion of the public and will make an effort to put into practice the promises he made in his re-election bid," Presidential Office Secretary-General Mark Chen (
Mark Chen made the remarks after the president met with 11 former advisers at the Taipei Guest House for what turned out to be a three-hour lunch meeting.
Mark Chen said all 11 advisers told the president that it was not necessary for him to step down because he was elected by the people to serve a four-year term and that he should stay on the job until his term expires.
In a bid to solicit more opinions from the public, Mark Chen said the president will meet with more groups.
Yesterday's meeting came one day after a group of pan-green academics urged the president to seriously consider stepping down because they said he had lost credibility and the people's trust.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Cho Jung-tai (
Wu Li-pei (吳澧培), one of the former senior advisers invited to yesterday's meeting, told the Taipei Times that he did not think President Chen should step down because the president had not done anything illegal.
"Even though his son-in-law was indicted, he is not yet convicted," Wu said. "Even if he is convicted, think about those corrupt officials working for the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] government. Shouldn't they all have had to step down if we applied the same standards to them?"
Wu said the pan-blue camp's demand that the president resign because they could safeguard honesty and protect Taiwan was a joke.
"The KMT should reflect on what they have done to safeguard honesty and protect Taiwan over the 50 years they were in power," he said. "Back then, they claimed Taiwan was `free China,' but what they said was a lie because Taiwan was not free and Taiwan was not China."
Before yesterday's meeting, Wu told the Taipei Times that he would advise President Chen to make it clear that he would not resign and to tell the public exactly what he planned to do for the remainder of his term.
Wu said the president must establish a sound mechanism to safeguard national security so the nation could be free from fear.
On the diplomatic front, Wu said that the president must improve communication channels with the US government and work with Washington to achieve common goals and interests.
He said the Executive Yuan's cross-strait economic policy must also conform to the four principles set down by the president -- to increase investment in Taiwan, create more jobs, reduce the urban-rural gap and to narrow the gap between the rich and poor.
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