Yu criticizes Ma's `Taiwan discourse'

Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun yesterday severely criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) vision of promoting unity in Taiwan in order to strengthen a future link with China, saying that Ma has no sense of Taiwan consciousness.

"Ma's argument fails to put Taiwan's interest first," Yu said.

During an interview with the Chinese-language broadcasting network Chinese Television System (CTS) yesterday morning, Yu described Ma as a China lover who sees promoting the KMT among Taiwanese as a tool to further links with China.

"For Ma, Taiwan is like a bridge connecting him with China. We can clearly see from his statements that he views the future of Taiwan from a Chinese perspective, rather than a Taiwanese one. I'm worried that such a China-oriented person, who now leads the opposition in Taiwan, could affected national development," Yu said.

Defending vision of a "Taiwan discourse," Ma yesterday reiterated that the KMT shares a close historical link with Taiwan and could not be considered an alien regime.

"We [KMT] are not foreigners, we belonged to Taiwan from the beginning," Ma said yesterday in response to Yu's criticism.

Although Yu said that people in Taiwan would not be able to identify with the KMT's "Taiwan discourse," Ma yesterday argued that his party's historical links with Taiwan are closer than those of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

"The DPP was founded after the KMT, and we have had party members in Taiwan since 1897. Therefore the KMT's relationship with Taiwan is longer and deeper than that of the DPP. The KMT is also a local party, because 70 percent of our party members are from Taiwan," Ma said.

He said that work on his idea of presenting a detailed position paper which emphasizes the KMT's bonds with Taiwan began six or seven years ago.

Responding criticism of a statement he made on Sunday that the son of a victim of the 228 Incident had presented him with a bottle of whisky, Ma said that he wanted to stress that one can make real friends if people treat each other with honesty, regardless of their political preferences.

Ma his idea that the KMT should have its own "Taiwan discourse" on Sunday during his first meeting with the party's Central Advisory Committee.

At the meeting he tried to illustrate his point that the KMT has deep roots in Taiwan by recounting an experience at a tea party with the relatives of victims of the 228 Incident in March. At the party, a son of presumed 228 victim Liao Chin-ping (廖進平) presented Ma with a bottle of whisky which had been a gift from Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) to Liao.

Liao a democracy activist who disappeared and is presumed to have been killed in the 228 Incident.