President Chen Shui-bian's (
Chen originally planned to hold the meeting at the Grand Hotel in Taipei to gather the participants' advice on the pan-green academics' demand last Saturday that he resign from the presidency.
At a press conference yesterday afternoon held to explain the reason for the last-minute cancelation, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the president consulted with party heavyweights, including Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Presidential Office Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), and decided to call off the meeting.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Media speculation
"The news media speculated that Chen planned the meeting to cozy up to people who oppose him, which is absolute nonsense," Ker said.
"We did not cancel the meeting because of this supposition. The meeting was canceled because we didn't want the public to think that the DPP is hostile to those academics' voice and opinion," Ker said, adding that "the DPP has no intention of doing that; on the contrary, we accept their opinions humbly and readily," Ker said.
Ker added that it would also be quite difficult for about 80 people to talk freely and fully in a two-hour meeting.
The president thus decided to make other arrangements, inviting only three to five lawmakers at a time to obtain their opinions, he said.
Bad impression
According to a core member of the DPP who wished to remain anonymous, it was DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun who suggested that the president cancel the meeting because Yu thought it would give the public a bad impression about the DPP by appearing to ignore the academics' demand.
The DPP member added that Yu stressed that he would not join the meeting if the Presidential Office insisted on holding it.
Earlier in the day, DPP Legislator Lin Shu-shan (林樹山) publicly criticized the president for damaging the DPP's image and demanded that Chen give up his party membership.
But DPP Spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (
Political gesture
In other related developments, the Northern Taiwan Society yesterday held a news conference to show their support for the president and criticized the pan-green academics' statement as a political gesture.
The society's secretary-general Chet Yang (楊文嘉) said the pan-green academics' request was not constructive and would only trigger a series of political and constitutional disasters for the nation.
"The resignation of the president would result in naked and intense political contention, which will not do any good for the country at all," Yang said.
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