DPP reins in critics of TSU

As DPP officials continue to cricize the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday instructed all party members to "stop casting harsh words against the new party."

"The verbal bickering between the New Party and the People First Party reveals the difficulties of inter-party cooperation and its competitive nature. The DPP, as a mature political party, should therefore keep a friendly relationship with the TSU," Hsieh said yesterday, adding that it was also a resolution reached by the party's central standing committee in the afternoon.

Hsieh's instruction came a day after the party's secretary general Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) had repeatedly criticized that "no signs have shown the TSU would help and cooperate with the DPP" and that "many of the new party's candidates are doomed to be sacrificed and become losers."

Wu also asked whether there would be an exodus of members leaving the the party to join the TSU.

Having been pessimistic about the TSU's political prospects, DPP legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) has also said that the new party "is not likely to succeed and very likely to lose."

Both Wu's and Fu's remarks represent worries within the party that the new party may siphon off DPP votes as both pro-Taiwan parties appeal to the same base of voters.

Hsieh, however, yesterday said that the new party, in response, has adjusted some of its potential candidates as a goodwill gesture to the DPP.

But he refused to reveal the names.

He also added that the DPP would not take advantage of and "make merry over the bickering between the New Party and the PFP."

The TSU has extended an invitation to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to attend the party's first national congress on Sunday, but an official at the Presidential Office yesterday said that "Chen was not yet scheduled to attend the party's formal founding ceremony."

The new party's organizer, Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), on Monday, confirmed that former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was expected to attend the ceremony. Local media have speculated that Chen would attend and join hands with Lee once again.

Wu, however, yesterday said that, even if Chen shows up, it would be "an act of courtesy in nature. No further political connotations should be drawn from it."