We rule the `ROC': DPP official

Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) younger generation have sought to redefine the party's rationale regarding Taiwan's cultural and political relations with China -- which will lead to the party acknowledging itself as the ruling party of the "Republic of China," a DPP legislator said yesterday.

Legislator Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said the new rationale asserts that politically, the "ROC is Taiwan," while culturally it acknowledges Taiwan's historic and cultural ties with China.

The new rationale will be based on the DPP's 1999 "Resolution on Taiwan's Future" (台灣前途決議文), which declares that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state, whose name is the ROC.

Any changes regarding this independent status must be collectively determined by the people in Taiwan through a referendum.

Luo said the resolution was formulated in 1999 when the DPP was still the opposition party; however, as the party has been in power for about five years, it was time to reinterpret this stance.

The new rationale will emphasize that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) were elected in accordance with the ROC's laws, and that this was just as legitimate as the oath that the nation's military service members have to swear to the ROC.

"There is no need to abandon the nomenclature of `ROC,' and now the priority is to let society recognize that the DPP is the ruling party of the ROC," Lo said.

Some of the party's younger lawmakers met on Thursday to discuss the new interpretation of Taiwan's political and cultural stances towards China.

The lawmakers directing the discussion included Luo, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Tsai Huang-lang (蔡煌瑯), Julien Kuo (郭正亮), Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) and Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰).

The discussion was intended to resolve the "ethnic conflict" exacerbated by the presidential election.

The lawmakers asserted that politically, Taiwan doesn't belong to China, but culturally Taiwan includes aspects of China.

The deputy director of the DPP's Information and Culture Department, Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), said yesterday the party respects and welcomes all kinds of different opinions and discussion about the nation's problems.

Cheng said the party's "Resolution on Taiwan's Future" and President Chen's "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait" policy were proposed based on equality between China and Taiwan.

"The party is open to challenges that could bring together people of different ethnic backgrounds. After all, most of the people in Taiwan have the same identity, inasmuch as they all love Taiwan," Cheng said.