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Lee's rewrite campaign to launch

"There is no contradiction between what private organizations will do to create a new constitution and Chen's constitutional amendment plan."

Ng Chiau-tong, chairman of World United Formosans for Independence

An effort to create a new constitution -- distinct from President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) project to amend the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution -- will launch on Thursday. The campaign will be led by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

The campaign materialized after Chen reversed course on constitutional reform in his inauguration speech, expressing support for amending the Constitution rather than creating a new one. This upset supporters of independence, who want to eliminate the ROC Constitution, which was promulgated in China in 1947.

Envisioning that a new constitution would be completed within four years, those behind the campaign seek to complete a draft constitution in 2006, ratify it through a national referendum in 2007 and see it enacted in 2008 to coincide with the inauguration of the next president, according to Wang Kang-hou (王康厚), financial director of the campaign.

Wang said that the campaign would support various versions of a new constitution, whether put forward by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union or another group, as long as the new constitution doesn't involve the "Republic of China" or "China," which the group believes would hinder the nation's international situation.

The campaign will have its official launch at the Grand Hotel Taipei on Thursday and will be organized by the same group that put together the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally -- the Hand-in Hand Taiwan Alliance.

Lee, organizer of the rally, said in a meeting last week with prominent pro-independence figures that he understood that Chen has been put under pressure not to advocate creating a new constitution, but that private groups must insist on establishing a new constitution and changing the nation's name to "Taiwan."

Lee said he was confident that by modeling the constitution campaign on the rally, the group could win the support of the public, though some have expressed doubts that the campaign will gain as much support as the rally did.

Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂), chairman of World United Formosans for Independence, said, "There is no contradiction between what private organizations will do to create a new constitution and Chen's constitutional amendment plan."

Ng said the campaign's goal is to establish a new constitution through a referendum, which would be more effective than going through existing constitutional amendment procedures, which require approval from three-quarters of legislators. Ng said that such a requirement is too high and prevents changes to the constitution from being comprehensive.

As opposed to the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally, which was a joint project of Lee and the DPP, the constitution campaign will not include the DPP because of Chen's stances on amending the Constitution and on issues including changes to the nation's name.
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