Premier Su Tseng-chang (
"Dual-party politics is good for this country. But, both the pan-blue camp and the pan-green camp will face enormous internal pressure in carrying out any form of integration," Government Information Office Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
Cheng was asked to comment on behalf of the premier yesterday morning regarding Yu's proposal on Sunday on forging an alliance with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU). He said that unless there was a way of modifying the result of the Constitutional amendment pertaining to the legislature, dual-party politics would be the direction of the future. The premier would therefore support Yu's proposal.
Cheng was referring to the Constitutional amendment which replaced the old "multi-member district, single-vote system" with the "single-member district, two-vote system" (
The amendment regulates that starting with the next legislative election, which will be held next year, the total number of legislative seats will be reduced from 223 to 113.
To increase its chances of winning in future elections, Yu then proposed the idea of forging an alliance with the TSU.
"The `single-member district, two-vote system' will naturally give rise to dual-party politics. As for how [we can] forge such an alliance, it will require a high degree of political acuity," Cheng said. "Chairman Yu has proposed an outline, and his outline will be endorsed by the premier."
Despite the DPP's enthusiasm, the lukewarm response from the TSU signals a difficult road ahead for the proposed alliance. TSU Secretary-General Lo Chih-ming (
"The DPP has a sufficient mechanism for communication between different political parties, and we will continue to keep it that way," Cheng said.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) yesterday said he agreed that it was necessary to facilitate cooperation between the DPP and the TSU, but he did not think it was time to talk about a merger.
"I think cooperation in the legislative elections is urgently needed in the pan-green camp; [pan-green] supporters also expect the two parties to cooperate," Lin said.
However, Lin said that forming an alliance or merging was a huge political task that would not be easy to achieve.
"I think the DPP and the TSU can start their cooperation with the Taipei and Kaohsiung elections and then extend the model to the legislative elections next year," Lin said.
Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (
"I believe as long as the DPP performs better and wins back the people's confidence, there will be room for talks about a merger," Cheng said.
Meanwhile, TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (
"Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Shu said that Lee was worried about the DPP's performance, its leaders' integrity and the government's effectiveness.
While these are key problems, Shu said: "We hope that people can stop speculating about the relationship between Lee and Chen. Lee does not have personal likes or dislikes about the president."
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