No consensus was reached during a 90-minute preliminary meeting yesterday ahead of the planned get-together between Premier Su Tseng-chang (
The preliminary meeting was held at the KMT headquarters yesterday, with KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (
"The two sides remain divided on whether Ma and Su should hold a private meeting or include other political leaders. The two sides will continue to study possibilities," KMT Spokesman Huang Yu-cheng (
As to whether or not the KMT would halt its plan to push for a second presidential recall motion in order to improve the political atmosphere, the two sides also failed to reach a conclusion, Huang added.
Although no consensus was reached during the summit, the meeting was conducted in a "cordial atmosphere," and the two sides shared "high expectations for solving the current political unrest."
"The two sides exchanged opinions frankly, understood each other's views, and are willing to continue to communicate with each other sincerely," Huang said.
Su had said that he hoped a consultative conference with all five party leaders could be convened after the preliminary meeting between himself and Ma.
Ma, however, repeated yesterday that he wished to have a one-on-one meeting with Su first.
While acknowledging that the meeting, with each side having dissenting views, may leave little room for negotiation, Ma expressed his expectations for talks on ways to break the current unrest.
"The reason I decided to talk to him has a lot to do with his absence from the pro-Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) rally. He understands his role, and only by talking to this kind of person can we find room for negotiation," he said.
"We are trying to find hope in public disappointment about the current situation," he added.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday requested the pan-blue alliance withdraw its second recall motion against the president before Su meets with Ma.
"There is no room for any discussion unless the second recall motion is pulled from the legislative agenda," DPP legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
Describing Ma as a "political idiot," Ker said he was the source of all the nation's troubles.
"He has an angel's face but does the devil's deeds," he said. "He is a political vegetable and not fit to talk about fighting corruption until he applies the same standards to handling his party's ill-gotten assets."
DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said that although Su's intentions were well-meant, her caucus would recommend that he not go to the meeting in a bid to avoid falling into Ma's trap and being used as his pawn.
"There is nothing to talk about unless there are no preconditions," she said. "If he is lucky, Su might be able to pull it off, but I am not upbeat about it, especially after the second recall motion made it to the legislative floor."
Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (
"The party's position is clear: we oppose the meeting if it is organized to discuss President Chen's resignation or an exit strategy for either the president or Shih," he said.
Lin said his party did not support party-to-party negotiations if the second recall motion or no-confidence vote against Su were used as a bargaining tool.
DPP legislators yesterday expressed differing opinions over the second recall motion.
Legislator Lin Chung-mo (
Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Regarding the pan-blue's plan to spark a no-confidence vote if the recall campaign failed, Wang said that he respected lawmakers' right to file the request and pointed out that it would create trouble if Chen decided to dissolve the legislature.
Earlier yesterday, the premier urged his fellow political leaders to "cease fire."
"Everybody should stop arguing for a moment so we can sit down and solve the biggest problem together," Su said during the Cabinet's weekly meeting.
Su said he had begun to have contact with other political leaders and invited them to the potential cross-party meeting.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
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