The DPP yesterday made a last-ditch effort to try to prevent its former chairman Shih Ming-te (
In a statement, the DPP urged Shih to "prioritize the interests of Taiwan," and "stay to grow with the DPP."
"The DPP wholeheartedly thanks him for his persistence and courage in fighting for human rights and democracy in Taiwan." the statement read.
"Both when the DPP was the opposition and now as the ruling party, Shih's insight helped break political deadlocks at critical moments in the past, and even if they failed to become the mainstream opinions of the party, they were still valuable."
It said the DPP wished that Shih would continue to stand by the party, especially as Taiwan has just seen its first transition of power between political parties and is upgrading its democratic standing in the world.
Shih, who started his political career as a democracy activist and was jailed during the martial law era, said he has been "the DPP's Shih Ming-te for too long," and wished to restore his identity as "Taiwan's Shih Ming-te."
Shih is the second ex-DPP chairman to quit the party, following in the footsteps of Hsu Hsin-liang (
Shih says that he had in fact already quit the DPP in September last year when he returned his DPP membership card to then DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
However, the DPP is insisting that the process was incomplete and that the party had no record of Shih's decision to quit the party.
Some DPP politicians have blamed factional differences and struggles within the DPP for Shih's decision to leave.
DPP Legislator Chen Zau-nan (
Chen said that the DPP, facing the reality that it is a minority party in the legislature, should have come up with a strategy to facilitate its rule, but instead "personal struggles" had dominated the party during this period.
Chen said this was the reason why Shih's idea to form a "majority ruling alliance," which would join opposition lawmakers in the legislature, was not accepted.
He had proposed the idea before President Chen Shui-bian's (
Chen reasoned that the Mainstream Alliance -- made up of legislators from four DPP factions -- had strongly opposed Shih's idea, because of personal differences with Shih.
However, the Mainstream Alliance is promoting a so-called "stability alliance," which is of a similar nature to the "majority ruling alliance," now that the DPP government has encountered severe political deadlock in the face of a strong opposition force in the legislature, Chen said.
Shih's announcement on Tuesday came amid recent developments in which wide differences again surfaced between Shih and the DPP leadership on ways to calm the on-going political turmoil, which has been triggered by the government's decision to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
Shih has publicly called on President Chen Shui-bian (
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