A senior DPP lawmaker said yesterday he would fight to block proposed revisions to the party's charter allowing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to serve concurrently as the party's chairman.
DPP legislator Yen Ching-fu (
The party will convene a special national congress on April 20 during which hundreds of delegates are expected to approve revisions to its charter requiring the president to act as its chairman when the DPP is in power.
"I was jailed for two-and-half years in the 1960s for opposing the KMT's dictatorial rule," Yen told the Taipei Times.
"The sacrifice would be futile if I fail to prevent the DPP from embarking on a course that led to the KMT's downfall."
The four-term lawmaker agreed that the DPP is in need of reform but argued that the proposal to integrate the party and the government will promise no solution.
"It is true that quite a few members haven't known what to fight for since the transfer of power," Yen said.
"But I don't see how, by having the president lead the party, the problem can be solved."
He noted that to preserve stability, the president has at times had to make decisions that run contrary to the party's platform.
As an example he cited Chen's failure to scrap the partially-built Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
"It would be odd for Chen to continue doing so if he is made the party's leader," Yen said.
"How can he expect other members to obey internal rules in the future?"
Yen, a member of the party's Welfare State Alliance faction, is interested in the chairmanship himself and has been touring around the country seeking support from fellow members.
The ambition will be derailed if the upcoming congress adopts the reform as drafted by the party's headquarters.
Yen claimed that many members share his misgivings, noting that the DPP won the presidency in 2000 owing mainly to its fierce attack on the KMT for failing to separate the government from its party machine.
"How can we convince our supporters of the turnabout in a short and simple phrase like `vote for alternate rule' that helped us capture the presidency," he asked.
"It would be better for the party to shun reckless moves or it may risk losing power in 2004."
Proponents of party politics dismiss Yen's concerns as unwarranted, noting that the DPP does not own any profit-making businesses.
Though vowing to quit DPP activities upon his inauguration, Chen has recently hinted that he is willing to chair the party.
"As a DPP member, I cannot sit watching the party wither. Nor do I think the party should be reduced to an election machine," the president said during an on-line chat this month.
The president also said in the chat that "this is my duty and responsibility, not a privilege."
Still, Yen said he is not afraid of playing the gadfly for what he called the party's interests.
To that end, he suggested the party sponsor a series of forums to develop a new platform that may serve as glue to unite the party and attract more supporters.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS