PFP must address Kao issue, critics say

In view of the PFP's response to the controversy surrounding party Legislator Kao Ming-chien's (高明見) invitation to a WHO-sponsored conference, political observers said that the party has not addressed the core issue but instead shifted the focus in a bid to fudge the situation.

"Instead of addressing the issue of whether Kao was recommended by China, the PFP highlighted the fact that Kao's invitation letter was passed on by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), a political observer and research fellow at the Taiwan Research Institute's Division of Strategic and International Studies, said.

Liao was referring to comments by PFP leaders defending Kao, who is attending the conference in Kuala Lumpur.

PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) delivered a stern rebuttal to the charge that Kao's invitation to the global conference made it look as if the lawmaker was representing China and not Taiwan.

Soong said Kao was invited to the conference because the WHO recognized his efforts in fighting the SARS epidemic in Taiwan and that the invitation had originally been sent to the foreign affairs ministry.

Before leaving for the conference, Director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁), head of Taiwan's delegation to Kuala Lumpur, said that Kao was not a member of the delegation.

However, Soong challenged Su's statement by showing a document issued by the foreign affairs ministry on June 12 asking Kao, along with others who had received the WHO's invitation to the conference, to attend a meeting before leaving for Malaysia.

"If Kao is not a member of the delegation, why was he invited by the ministry to take part in the meeting?" Soong asked.

Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the PFP's Center of Policy Research, claimed the DPP is trying to gain political points from the incident in a bid to generate anti-China sentiment in the run up to next March's presidential election. Chang said the situation has been exacerbated by DPP jealousy that Kao was at the conference, but not at the invitation of Department of Health (DOH) Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁).

According to Liao, the point that needs to be addressed is whether or not Kao is a willing participant.

"For an invitation letter to have been issued there first of all had to be a recommendation," Liao said. "Therefore, one obvious question that arises is who recommended Kao, because the government clearly stated that it had only recommended four people to take part in the conference."

Kao was not among the four recommended by the government.

"If it is true that Kao is unaware he has fallen under the spell of China and its `one China' propaganda, then he is guilty of naivety." Liao said.

"However, it would be worse if Kao is aware of China's propaganda and yet was still willing to participant in it," Liao said, adding that the public should examine both Kao and the party he represents when deciding if he is guilty of a "quasi-act of treason against Taiwanese."

Moments after the PFP concluded its press conference yesterday, a group of TSU supporters showed up in front of the PFP headquarters protesting Kao's acceptance of China's recommendation to attend the conference.