TSU to focus on party goals at assembly

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強) yesterday instructed the party's National Assembly delegates to refrain from casting invalid votes or diverging from the party's basic stance of working toward a new constitution and revising the country's name when the assembly meets.

At a training seminar held for its assembly delegates, Shu gave a lecture on "the TSU's strategies in the National Assembly," and called on the party's 21 delegates to stick to the TSU's stance on the constitutional reforms during the assembly's session, which opens on Monday.

"Writing a new constitution and correcting the country's name is the key strategy and goal for Taiwan's transformation into a country with normal systems," Shu said.

"If we can't achieve these two aims, Taiwan's independence will only be empty talk."

"TSU delegates have to explain the outcome for Taiwan if the constitutional amendments are passed," Shu said.

Shu added that the delegates will receive attendance fees but that the party will donate these to public welfare groups.

The TSU later set up its assembly caucus in the afternoon. The party, which has the third-largest number of delegates in the assembly, will recommend Annie Lee (李安妮) to be its representative on the assembly's panel of chairmen.

Chien Lin Hui-chien (錢林慧君) will serve as caucus convener and Chen I-shen (陳儀深) will be spokesman. Chiu Kuo-chang (邱國昌) will be director of the TSU's caucus office.

Liu Yi-teh (劉一德), director of the TSU's organization department, who was also a lecturer at yesterday's seminar, instructed the party's delegates to make protests and create a ruckus during their allotted speech times to accentuate the infeasibility of the constitutional amendments.

TSU Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said that the TSU will commission Lee to articulate that the constitutional amendments the National Assembly is going to vote on are unconstitutional and disobey the spirit of democracy.

"The TSU opposes passing these constitutional amendments, which will essentially deprive people of the right to revise the Constitution, given the incredibly high ratification threshold," Chen said during the seminar.

"We think that only by highlighting the absurdity of these constitutional amendments and the significance of writing a new constitution can Taiwan become a country with normal systems and the status of a nation."