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Chen lets the DPP factions fight it out

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has refused to step into the fray over who should -- and who should not -- be his running mate in next year's presidential election.

For more than a week, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has engaged in sometimes bitter infighting over Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) inclination to once again be Chen's running mate.

At yesterday's Central Executive Committee meeting, Chen offered only a brief comment when asked what he thought about the debate: "I hope everyone can encourage one another."

His comment came as a response to committee members Yu Hung (尤宏) and Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), who demanded that party officials discontinue any discussions on a possible vice presidential candidate until Chen makes his final decision in December.

However, Yu and Tsai's proposal met with disagreement from other party officials, who said the rule would contradict the party's enshrined values of democracy and freedom of speech.

While trying to interpret Chen's vague remark, DPP Legislator Lawrence Gao (高志鵬) -- also a member of the party's Central Standing Committee -- said the president asked only that everyone encourage one another to make things right.

"It is a good thing to see everyone reach a consensus on the issue and stop throwing malignant remarks at each other. But using a compulsory rule to restrain each other from talking about it, that goes against the rules of democracy and progress that the party has enshrined," Gao said.

The suggestion that Yu and Tsai put forward to quell the internal squabble was a result of infighting between the sometimes outspoken Lu and her opponents within the party.

Last week, Lu launched an attack on DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), one of the main initiators of a petition drive urging Chen to "carefully consider" his choice of a running mate -- a move he admitted was intended to scuttle Lu's hopes.

Lu subsequently lashed out at Chiu, accusing the lawmaker's father, a democracy activist, of acting cowardly during the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident rebellion against the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

In response, veteran DPP Legislator Lin Chou-shui (林濁水) yesterday criticized Lu's own integrity in the incident, accusing her of turning in several fellow dissidents when she was being interrogated during the subsequent crackdown.

Lin's remarks prompted another veteran DPP member, Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏), to reproach Lin. Chang noted that while he and Lu had been arrested and interrogated after the Kaohsiung Incident, Lin had not.

"People who haven't lived through that disaster, that hell, I hope they won't say anything." Chang told reporters. "They don't have enough credentials to say anything."

Later yesterday, Lin clarified his remarks, saying, "In the atmosphere of terror during the Kaohsiung Incident, many of the people arrested made false confessions under torture."

However, Lin criticized Lu again by saying that everyone was fearful during the repressive era and people shouldn't argue about who was more courageous at that time.

"Even though Lu was not the one turning in most of her fellow dissidents, she certainly contributed to the turning in of some of her fellows," Lin said.

The DPP's Central Executive Committee meeting yesterday approved the schedule for holding a primary for the presidential election, spanning from late October to mid-December.

According to the schedule, the party will announce the official nomination for the presidential candidate on Dec. 10 and then the presidential candidate will subsequently announce his running mate during the DPP's National Assembly on Dec. 13.

Currently, Chen is the only one within the DPP intending to run in the presidential election.
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