Tue, Feb 28, 2006 page3

• Opposition threatens to impeach Chen over NUC

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Opposition party lawmakers yesterday threatened to impeach President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in response to his announcement that the National Unification Council will "cease to function" and that the national unification guidelines will "cease to apply."

  Chen made his announcement yesterday afternoon. Minutes after the announcement, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) told reporters that the president had told him everything before he made the move public.

  "He [the president] told me that he would use the words `to cease' instead of `to abolish,'" he said.

  

  Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, right, yesterday exchanges opinions with some Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislators after President Chen Shui-bian announced that he would cause the operation of the National Unification Council and guidelines to ``cease.''

  PHOTO: CNA

  Wang did not say whether he would endorse his fellow pan-blue lawmakers' proposal to impeach the president.

  "The president's announcement seems to be a sign that he is leading this country one step closer to independence," KMT Policy Committee director Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said. "What he has done has changed the status quo and jeopardizes the national security."

  Tseng said that he would support the proposal to impeach the president, and would also encourage his fellow KMT lawmakers to do so.

  An impeachment signature drive was launched by KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) immediately after the president proposed "scrapping" the national unification guidelines and the National Unification Council during the Lunar New Year holiday. Ting needs signatures from at least 55 lawmakers to turn the petition into a legislative proposal. At press time yesterday, 57 lawmakers had already signed.

  An impeachment proposal would have to be approved by two-thirds of the lawmakers in the 225-seat Legislative Yuan to move past the first reading.

  "Now that the idea to impeach the president has become a proposal, we will attempt to submit it to the legislature for initial review as soon as next Tuesday," Tseng said.

  People First Party (PFP) caucus whip Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said that he would encourage PFP legislators to support the proposal, because it was the lawmakers' obligation to put pressure on government officials if they do something "outrageous" that endangers the country.

  "We need to teach him [the president] a lesson and let him know that we are not happy about this," Lu said.

  Meanwhile, the whips of the legislative caucuses of the KMT, the PFP and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union said they would demand that the premier brief the legislature on the decision-making process behind the policy.

  Also, street protests might be "unavoidable" to keep Chen from scrapping the National Unification Council (NUC) and its guidelines, a PFP spokesman said.

  KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that discussion of the specific words used to describe the fate of the NUC was "only semantics."

  Ma said semantics was not the key issue and that "what the public is concerned about are the issues that relate to their daily lives."

  At a time when the nation is plagued with so many economic problems, Ma said, the president had stoked a controversial political issue that would not benefit the public.

  "The president has the wrong priorities in setting his political agenda," Ma said.

  "The president's proposal to do away with the NUC has rocked Taiwan-US and cross-strait relations," he said.

  "The public hopes that the president will refocus on what he should do," he said, adding that if "he insists on going down this controversial path, history will record it."
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