Passport debate: Passports latest stick to beat Chen with

PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) best summed up the root of the administrative controversy -- Chen should not have made the announcement himself.

"An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have sufficed to tackle the matter," Soong told PFP legislators-elect on Monday.

"I don't see why the president had to personally proclaim the revision."

And the list of accusations goes on and on. The fact is that, if someone else other than Chen made the announcement, the opposition parties would probably not have been protesting so vehemently -- and irrationally.

Legally, it falls within the domain of the foreign ministry to design the nation's passports. The legislature may, in line with its right of oversight, either agree or disagree to the final work, but may not make any alteration to it.

Correcting confusion

The ministry has long mulled adding the word "Taiwan" in roman script to all ROC passports in response to problems befalling Taiwanese tourists mistaken for PRC nationals abroad and suffering unfair treatment because of the mistake.

Last year, four Taiwanese college students were held in custody for one night after they sought to enter Switzerland from Austria by train, according to Ko Pao-hsuan (葛葆萱) an official at the foreign ministry. No Swiss visas are necessary for Taiwanese tourists travelling under such circumstances, a privilege that is not extended to PRC travelers.

"But Swiss police insisted on making further checks because they could not find information in the students' passports showing they came from Taiwan instead of China," Ko said.

He noted that such incidents tend to take place in small domestic airports in European and Latin American countries where immigration officials and airline companies have little idea of the feud across the Taiwan Strait.

Also last year, a ROC national had his passport briefly confiscated in Frankfurt because authorities there suspected he was an illegal immigrant from China. Taiwan's representative office in Italy received two similar complaints during the same period.

Katharine Chang (張小月), spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said the ministry briefed the Cabinet last month of the planned change and at the Cabinet's request, filed a separate report to the Presidential Office.

"It's impossible and undesirable to exclude the premier from the discussion of a matter so important," Chang said, adding that all departments concerned had held several meetings to exchange views about the issue.

She maintained that the suggested change would not flout any international codes or customs so long as the country's formal title and logo remain intact.

Still, those obsessed with bashing Chen are not convinced.

John Chang (章孝嚴), KMT legislator-elect and a former foreign minister, said he has never encountered any trouble traveling with the present passport.

"I travel a lot and find my passport just as good as any issued by other countries in the world," he said.

DPP lawmaker Parris Chang (張旭成), also a frequent traveler, said that he did not in the least doubt Chang's contention. "As government officials, we enjoy privileged treatment unavailable to average citizens," he said.

To placate the opposition that is poised to attach a resolution to the 2002 fiscal budget barring the foreign ministry from altering the wording on the passport, Chen has turned low-key. For that same reason, he has remained tight-lipped over the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle. It seems he is right -- the opposition parties just cannot put up with him being president.