The mayors of the nation's top two cities exchanged barbed words yesterday over the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) plan to hold an "anti-Chen Shui-bian" rally in Kaohsiung today to demand the president's resignation.
Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Chu-lan (
"I hope Chairman Ma will not grab power by initiating political disputes, and that he will not contaminate [Kaohsiung], -- a politically `pure' place -- [with the event]" Yeh said yesterday at a Kaohsiung City Council meeting.
PHOTO: HUANG PO-LANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma fired back, saying that Yeh's criticism of the event showed disrespect for the spirit of democracy.
"Assembling and marching are among the people's basic rights. Why would a mayor be unwelcoming toward such an event?" Ma said yesterday after participating in a municipal event at Taipei City Hall.
Ma said that he was surprised to hear Yeh's remarks.
"[Her remarks] do not sound like something a Democratic Progressive Party member would say," he said.
The goal of the KMT's "A-Bian Step Down to Save Taiwan" event, which is being held today at the Kaohsiung Municipal Social Education Hall, is to collect as many signatures as possible to demand that the president voluntarily resign.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) has mobilized it supporters to protest the KMT's event today.
TSU Legislator Lo Chih-ming (
In response to the TSU's plan to counter the KMT's campaign with their own protest, Ma said that his party's campaign and the recall motion were not designed to provoke political confrontation between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, nor was it an ethnic issue, and that the TSU should not fight against the people's desire to oust the president.
"The campaign's focus is to demand the resignation of President Chen, whose impotence and relatives' corruption has eroded public support. This is a historical moment, and the TSU should choose the right side," he said.
Meanwhile, a new pro-independence group that calls itself the "Taiwan Society" has said it will hold a rally on June 17 on Ketagelan Boulevard.
The purpose of the rally is to object to recent political disturbances stirred up by the pan-blue camp, Northern Taiwan Society (NTS) secretary-general Chet Yang (
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