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Political parties to resume debate negotiations today

Representatives from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance are expected to return to the negotiation table today over a proposed televised debate between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the pan-blue alliance's presidential hopeful, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰).

The negotiations were originally scheduled to take place last Sunday but never got off the ground as the DPP, citing the absence of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from the event, refused to attend because they felt the pan-blue camp showed insincerity about the talks by having chosen three negotiators whose stature was not commensurate with that of the representatives dispatched by the DPP.

If negotiations succeed in producing an agreement on a prospective debate's time, location and format, it could lead to the first televised head-to-head debate between presidential candidates in the nation's history.

Because of electoral win-loss calculations as well as a lack of will on the part of presidential candidates, no televised debate has been staged since the nation began direct elections of the president and vice president in 1996.

According to Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華), executive member of the Taipei Society and a sociology professor at National Chengchi University, politicians' lack of public perspective is one of the one main reasons that presidential debates have not yet been held.

"Taiwan's politicians, more often than not, still view elections according to the concerns and perspectives of their own personal interest and not from the broader scope of elections as a nation's public affairs," Ku said.

Ku said that the Public Television Service (PTS) -- which plans to host the debate -- should try to move the negotiations forward and not just go along with the political parties.

"If, in any case, the negotiations fall through again, PTS should make known to the public which of the parties bears the most responsibility for the negotiations' failure," Ku said.

DPP national campaign chief Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), Taipei County Commissioner and DPP national campaign manager Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) are expected to represent the DPP at today's negotiations, while the pan-blue camp's negotiators will consist of Ma, KMT policy convener Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), KMT Legislator Yu Tzu-shiang (游梓翔) and PFP caucus leader Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).

As of press time, the DPP had yet to announce who the fourth member of its negotiation team would be.
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