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DPP mass rally to ‘safeguard Taiwan’

Democratic Progressive Party caucus members protest against President Ma Ying-jeou before a legislative meeting outside the legislature yesterday. PHOTO: CNA

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called on the public yesterday to take part in its “safeguard Taiwan” demonstration to be held today in Taipei City.

The rally, co-sponsored by the Taiwan Solidarity Union and several pro-independence groups, will target “the one China market, the downgrading of Taiwan’s sovereignty and an incompetent government.”

“The President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s policies and governance have made people concerned that the country is moving toward unification with China, so Taiwanese need to take to the streets and let the Ma government and [chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait] Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) hear the real voice of the people,” DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday.

Chen is scheduled to visit Taipei on Nov. 3 for a second round of cross-strait talks.

Tsai said Chen’s visit was a milestone in cross-strait policy because it signified a step toward unification — something Beijing has long pursued.

“This is something we don’t want to see,” she said.

The DPP has accused Ma of sacrificing Taiwan’s sovereignty by adopting a “modus vivendi” approach that has advocated a “diplomatic truce” with China while introducing a series of cross-strait liberalization measures since his May 20 inauguration.

These measures included launching nonstop cross-strait chartered flights on weekends, allowing more Chinese tourists, allowing cross-strait currency trading, recognizing Chinese academic degrees and raising the cap on China-bound investment by local enterprises from 40 percent of their net worth to 60 percent.

The party also expressed dissatisfaction with what it said was the Ma administration’s failure to take a tough stance in dealing with the scare over melamine-tainted food imported from China.

Tsai said that despite the fact that China’s tainted milk crisis spilled over to Taiwan, resulting in thousands of local food items being removed from shelves, the Ma government has yet to demand an apology and compensation from China.

“Tomorrow is the time for the public to tell the government to make a major change to its policies,” she said yesterday.

Many pan-green heavyweights including former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former premiers Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Yu Shyi-kun planned to take part in the rally.

However, former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) will not. His office said that Hsieh, defeated by Ma in the March presidential election, would not take part in the rally in order to avoid obscuring the theme of the rally.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday challenged the legitimacy of the DPP’s rally, saying that the public should instead support the government and focus on how to revive the economy.

KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) accused the DPP of attempting to “legitimize its recent corruption and violent behavior” by holding the demonstration.

“Instead of sticking to its plan to hold the rally, the DPP should tell the public how it intends to distance itself from [money laundering allegations against former president] Chen Shui-bian,” Shuai told a press conference.

KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), who also attended the conference, said the public should blame the recent economic downturn on Chen’s eight years in office.

People should refrain from participating in the protest, she said, adding that anyone who intended to join the rally should hold up posters and banners to show their opposition to the former president.

KMT Legislator Tsao Erh-chang (曹爾忠) said the DPP was holding the rally to protest against the “incompetent” government when “former president Chen is the most incompetent of them all,” over which he said Tsai had “feigned ignorance.”

In related news, the Executive Yuan yesterday announced it would kickstart a series of Made-in-Taiwan exhibits with the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) “Come and Buy Our Agricultural Goods” fair in Taipei today.

The agricultural fair, the first of several exhibitions, opens today in Taipei’s former Songshan Tobacco Plant and will last until tomorrow.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday reported that the decision to hold the fair had not been made until Monday, sparking speculation that the Executive Yuan may be using the event to counter the effects of today’s anti-Ma parade.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said on Thursday that, starting this weekend, the Executive Yuan would host an event each week promoting Taiwanese-made products.

Although the COA hosts a farmer’s market every weekend at the city’s Hope Plaza (希望廣場), the Liberty Times reported that the council received instructions from the Executive Yuan to expand the event this weekend.

COA Deputy Minister Huang Yu-tsai (黃有才) rejected media speculation that the event may have been planned to counter the anti-Ma parade.

“This event is to promote agricultural goods in Taiwan and has nothing to do with politics,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG AND MEGGIE LU
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