Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has turned down President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) invitation for talks on her proposal for a national conference on state affairs, but said Ma was welcome to attend the conference.
Such an event should be “a process participated in by everyone in the nation,” Tsai said yesterday, calling it meaningless “if it is just two people talking to each other.”
“However, if the president wants to join the process, we will welcome him, too,” she added.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Tsai made the remark after Ma delivered the invitation earlier in the day and extended his agreement with a proposal she made a day earlier to push for constitutional reform.
Amid heated discussions over constitutional reform following Nov. 29’s nine-in-one elections, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suffered a landslide defeat, Tsai on Saturday evening called for a national conference to discuss the issue.
Speaking at a fundraising dinner for the Taiwan Association of University Professors, Tsai said it might be time to reform the Constitution, as the nation is facing fundamental challenges, such as the president appointing the premier and thereby influencing policy decisions, but the premier being the one held responsible for policy failures.
“The constitutional moment has come; there are many fundamental issues — which prevent Taiwan from moving forward — that must be solved,” Tsai said on Saturday.
“Therefore, we need to call a national conference, inviting representatives from the government, the opposition, different political parties and civil society to negotiate for a consensus on major national issues, as we strive to overcome the harsh challenges we have encountered,” she said.
Tsai later said that the challenges she referred to include the proposal made by New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) — the sole candidate for the KMT chairmanship after Ma resigned as KMT chairman — that the political system be changed from a semi-presidential system to a parliamentary one.
Former president and KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who also attended Saturday’s fundraiser, said he supports Chu’s call for a parliamentary system.
“With a parliamentary system, the premier would be the one who has the actual power, and could be removed through a no-confidence vote if the premier is not performing well, instead of having to wait for four years under the current system,” Lee said.
While optimistic that Chu would be able to enact constitutional reform once elected KMT chairman, Lee is worried that Ma could be an obstacle, and thus called for him to resign as president.
Defending his decision when he was in power to support the semi-parliamentary system while pushing for constitutional amendments, Lee said that, at the time, democratic reforms could not come about without a strong president, “but now we are a democratic society, and the problems we are facing today can only be solved with a parliamentary system.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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