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DPP chairman has kinder words for Ma Ying-jeou

DPP Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang, right, and Taipei County commissioner candidate Luo Wen-jia hug outside a Taipei County temple yesterday. PHOTO: CHENG SHU-TING, TAIPEI TIMES

In sharp contrast to Premier Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) less-than-friendly words for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday was upbeat about Ma's double act as chairman of the KMT and Taipei mayor, saying that Ma should be encouraged and that people should not try to find fault with him at this time.

Su made the remarks yesterday while accompanying Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), the DPP's candidate for Taipei County commissioner, to two noted temples in Taipei County to worship.

Su served as Taipei County commissioner from 1997 until last year.

Although Ma is the likely opponent for a Su or Hsieh DPP ticket at the 2008 presidential election, Su embraced Ma's election triumph. Hsieh had said that Ma would struggle to deal with both party affairs and his municipal responsibilities.

Su said that it was good to see that the KMT was about to start a period of reform, and he expected that Ma would carry out his campaign promise of transforming the old KMT and eradicating its longstanding use of "black gold" politics.

"I think we should give Ma more encouragement and our best regards to him in his new post," Su said.

"Hopefully, Ma will improve the sour relations between the ruling and opposition parties, stop negative competition between them and bring an end to the opposition parties' meaningless boycott in the legislature," he said.

When asked about Hsieh's concerns over Ma's workload, Su said that there was no doubt that Ma would have much more work to do than before, but that there was "no need to find fault with Ma."

DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) appealed to Ma to quickly facilitate passage of the long-delayed arms-procurement package in light of the US Department of Defense's report released on Tuesday on China's accelerating military strength.

The report stated that China's military expansion is altering the cross-strait status quo.

"I urge Ma to walk out of the shadow of outgoing KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and support a provisional legislative session to allow the arms-procurement bill to be passed as soon as possible so that Taiwan's national security can be ensured," Lee said.
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