Print

Mail

wiki links

Soong plan annoys some in KMT

Pan-blue legislators shout slogans before commencing a review of the presidential recall motion during a special session of the legislature yesterday. PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday urged People First People (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to abandon a plan to push for a motion to topple the Cabinet, saying that it might damage KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

"Ma has been raped by Soong one time. I appeal to Soong not to rape Ma again," KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said, referring to when Ma swapped his initial hesitation regarding the recall motion to become its supporter, because of pressure from pan-blue camp leaders.

Chang made the remarks when asked whether he supported Soong, who has suggested proposing a motion to force the premier to resign if the recall motion fails.

"The Cabinet's dissolution will cause social turmoil and influence economic performance, and the KMT will be blamed for all this," he said.

Chang's opposition to toppling the Cabinet reflected a concern among some legislators that the president might respond by dissolving the legislature.

People First Party Chairman James Soong leads a sit-in protest to support the presidential recall motion yesterday. Soong accused the president of lying to the public in his TV address to the nation on Tuesday night. PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES

"It is the president whose integrity is in question. Why should legislators be forced to lose their jobs?" one KMT legislator said on condition of anonymity.

Responding to the legislators' comments, Soong said that "at the very beginning, it was KMT that came up with the idea to topple the Cabinet, not the PFP."

He said that the PFP decided to demand that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) leave office because he had supported the president, making him an accomplice of the president.

However, later yesterday Soong appeared less adament on the proposal to topple the Cabinet, and said the PFP would talk it over with the KMT after the joint effort to push the recall motion ends.

Soong yesterday led dozens of PFP legislators and pan-blue supporters to stage a sit-in protest outside the legislature from 11am to 5pm.

The protest will last until the legislature completes its vote on recall motion on Tuesday.

The legislature yesterday began its four-day debate on a motion to oust the president.

Government officials who were invited to the committee meeting for questioning and pan-green legislators were all absent, leaving only pan-blue legislators.

Deputy Speaker Chung Jung-chi (鍾榮吉), a member of the PFP, criticized the president for refusing to submit a rebuttal statement to the legislature's recall motion.

"I, as a chairman of the meeting, feel sorry and perplexed that the president did not give his response to the legislature and that government officials are boycotting the meeting," he said.

Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called on all parties to jointly tackle what she called the constitutional crisis if the opposition-initiated recall motion fails to pass the legislature on Tuesday.

"In addition to trusting the judicial system in the investigation of the corruption scandals, I urge both the ruling and opposition parties to remain rational, calm and responsible if the opposition pan-blue camp's recall proposal fails in the legislature," she said.

Lu made the remarks before attending the 50th anniversary ceremony of the National Institute of Educational Resources and Research in Taipei yesterday.

Lu proposed to adopt a "blue ocean" strategy in a bid to discover a new ground for the country and its people.

The "blue ocean strategy" is the subject of a book, which argues that cutthroat competition as counterproductive.

Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
This story has been viewed 3194 times.