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Pan-greens plan to hold rally in support of president today

A number of pro-localization groups will stage a mass rally today to defend President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) against a recall campaign launched by the opposition.

The rally outside the Presidential Office is expected to attract several thousand people and will condemn the recall campaign as a "threat to public stability."

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which originally said it would not play an organizational role, yesterday said that in response to "supporters' high expectations" it would mobilize party members to attend the event as well as rally behind the embattled president.

The DPP said the rally was intended to help to stabilize the political situation and boost the economy. Party spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said the DPP would assist those who wanted to participate in the rally, but expressed the hope that it would be conducted "rationally and peacefully."

Organizers said they hope to attract some 50,000 people to the event.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union, the DPP's pan-green ally, said it would also encourage its supporters to take part in today's rally.

Event organizers said the bid to oust Chen cannot be justified because the president is not personally implicated in any wrongdoing.

The opposition is trying to recall Chen over allegations his family and aides were involved in illegal business deals and are guilty of using their positions for financial gain. The opposition hopes to get enough support in the legislature to conduct a public referendum on the matter.

When Chen's son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), was arrested on suspicion of insider trading on May 24, the president's integrity was questioned and he risked a revolt within his own party.

Chen resolved the crisis by ceding some of his powers to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who was appointed by Chen earlier in the year and leads the Cabinet. Su is viewed as the DPP's most likely candidate for the 2008 presidential election, and Chen's decision was widely supported by other DPP politicians.

Chen was elected in 2000 on a clean government platform and gained popular support due to perceptions that the former KMT administration was deeply tainted by corruption. The recent scandals have given the opposition the opportunity to attach the same label to Chen's administration.

"If you want to recall the president, you have to provide credible evidence [of wrongdoing]," Presidential Office Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) told foreign media this week.

Meanwhile, the DPP will run advertisements in the media starting today in an attempt to counter the opposition's recall motion, a DPP official said yesterday.

Tsai noted that the DPP has made several TV ads to highlight the party's goal of boosting the economy and increasing the welfare of the people amid the current political upheaval.

Tsai described Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as the "source of political turmoil" in Taiwan after Ma revealed his plan to solicit support from the public for a campaign to oust Chen.

According to Tsai, the DPP will not exclude the possibility of posting frequent ads before June 27, when the recall motion will be put to a vote in the legislature, "to avoid Taiwan falling into chaos."
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