Print

Mail

wiki links

Chen plans to visit S Pacific, Africa

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) plans to visit the country's diplomatic allies in the South Pacific and Africa in the second half of this year as part of his efforts to upgrade Taiwan's international profile and promote peaceful dialogue across the Taiwan Strait, government sources said yesterday.

On the domestic front, the sources said, Chen hoped to mend fences with the opposition now that the opposition-initiated motion to recall him over his son-in-law's suspected involvement in an insider trading scandal had failed.

The sources added that Chen wanted to consult with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led pan-blue alliance on the issue of Control Yuan nominations.

The nation's supreme watchdog body has been forced to halt normal operations for more than a year because the pan-blue dominated legislature has refused to confirm Chen's proposed list of nominations for the Control Yuan seats on the grounds that some of the nominees are not up to the job.

The sources said the Presidential Office had discussed the issue with officials in both the ruling and opposition camps in an attempt to solve the deadlock.

Asked whether the president was likely to come up with a new list as the opposition previously demanded, Chen's staff were quoted as saying "nothing is impossible."

Chen's aides also said that the president plans to conduct extensive community outreach trips around the country in the coming weeks to listen to grassroots voices and solicit opinions from various quarters on major public issues.

Starting next month, the sources said, Chen will give interviews to major international news media to spell out his ideas on promoting cross-strait peace talks as well as the outcome of a national conference on Taiwan's sustainable development scheduled to take place late this month.

Meanwhile, the sources said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will step up internal reform and unity to regain public trust in the wake of a string of debilitating corruption allegations against DPP administration officials.

The 20-year-old party has managed to win the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections because of its commitments to promoting democratic reform, clean politics and developing a distinctive identity for Taiwan.

The DPP administration has failed, however, to score major administrative achievements because the pan-blues have used their legislative majority to boycott the administration's policy initiatives at nearly every turn over the past six years.

Worse still, the alleged involvement of several administration officials and members of the first family in corruption or influence-peddling scandals has gravely affected the DPP's "clean image." The party's longstanding internal factional strife has also affected the party's strength.

At this time of hardship, DPP sources said all factional leaders have come to understand the importance of internal unity.

The sources cited as proof that both Legislator Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌) of the DPP's New Tide faction and Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), a former legislator and member of the DPP's Justice Alliance, have agreed to help with former premier Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) bid for the year-end Taipei mayoral election. Hsieh is a key figure in the DPP's Welfare State faction.
This story has been viewed 1764 times.