Blue camp refuses to help president over SARS outbreak

The opposition party leaders yesterday turned down President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) invitation to discuss the government's measures for countering the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The Presidential Office stressed that both the KMT and the PFP obviously misunderstood the president's intentions, who just wanted to introduce the government's overall policy.

On Sunday night's televised talk, Chen encouraged the public to work together to try to contain the SARS epidemic. He also said he plans to meet with the legislative caucus and political party leaders to discuss prevention measures after a special high-level meeting by the National Security Council on Thursday.

The purpose of the meeting is to evaluate the overall situation in Taiwan and brief the Cabinet on possible counter measures. If the overall evaluation of the meeting shows that the spread of the epidemic has met certain criteria, the president may have to announce an emergence decree.

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday expressed their reservations about Chen's suggestion.

"Our parties have long taken steps to help the fight against SARS, and it is unnecessary at this point to turn the current issue into a partisan one," said the pan-blue camp heads.

Lien and Soong made their remarks when they met with Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to woo support for the legislation of the opposition parties' draft of an emergency act to contain the spread of SARS.

Accompanied by pan-blue party caucus members, Lien and Soong urged Wang to speed up the legislation, hoping that the draft will go into effect after the second reading on Friday.

Lien and Soong said the KMT and PFP have actively taken initiatives and that "the two parties will commission a high-level task force to cooperate with the government," but they said that the timing is not appropriate to hold a political summit.

Soong said that nothing is more important than the fight against SARS and that the KMT and PFP have set up a professional task force. The two leaders have been pushing for various counter-SARS measures.

"The opposition didn't start to act on countering SARS just today," Soong said.

The Presidential Office didn't give up on the president's idea of inviting all major political parties' heads and the legislative speaker this week to a SARS meeting.

"The meeting will not focus on any political issues and therefore it should not be regarded as a political summit.

"The president is advocating to discussing state affairs with party leaders," said James Huang (黃志芳), the Presidential Office spokesman.