Cabinet says it will not cancel permit for Saturday's rally

While the Cabinet will not revoke the Taipei City Government's permit for a demonstration on Saturday, it will not rule out the possibility of interfering if the situation gets out of hand, Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

"The National Police Administration is authorized by law to step in to maintain security in the capital city if necessary," Lin said.

"However, we'd hesitate to adopt the measure as a last resort since it's a politically sensitive issue," he said.

To resolve the problem once and for all, Lin called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to visit President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as soon as possible to hammer out possible solutions to their political standoff.

Cabinet meeting

Lin made the remarks yesterday morning during the press conference held after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet's stance on the matter was clear, Lin said, and that is the government will not and cannot vacate the permit because such authorization falls under the jurisdiction of the Taipei Municipal Police Department.

"Our first priority is to see the city government cancel the application filed by the pan-blue alliance," he said.

"However, the city authorities should ensure that the event goes peacefully if they decide to uphold their original decision. They shoulder all responsibility should things go awry," he said.

While the Cabinet will continue to negotiate with the city government, Lin said that it hoped Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would call on pan-blue supporters to adopt a peaceful and rational approach during the demonstration.

"Reliable intelligence indicates that gangsters will get involved in the event [in an attempt] to incite brutality and violence, a scenario we would hate to see," the Cabinet spokesman said.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday also called on the opposition to remain calm and rational and let the judicial system carry out its duties.

Premier's appeal

"Please don't let irrational behavior deliver a deadly blow to our economy, which has started to show some signs of recovery," Lin quoted Yu as saying.

In light of a series of massive post-election rallies and related violence, Yu said that city authorities should in the future carefully evaluate applications for similar gatherings and map out effective response measures.

During the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) raised questions about the legality of previous rallies.

"The demonstrators were a bunch of street thugs because they occupied public roads, creating traffic problems and encroaching on other citizens' rights," Chen Ding-nan said.

During the Cabinet meeting, Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), the chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, also called into question the Taipei City Government's jurisdiction over the Poai Special District, which covers both the Presidential Office and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.

"This is a good time to review the gray area and determine whether the city or the central government has the jurisdiction over the district," he said.

In related news, when asked whether the premier had any plans to visit the university students staging a "hunger strike" at the CKS Memorial, Lin Chia-lung said that Yu has requested the Department of Health dispatch medical personnel to the memorial to check the students' physical condition and to provide help, if necessary.