Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (
Shih made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei, where he displayed photos he had taken with Chen Yu-hao during a visit to Thailand last year.
He said that "Chen [Yu-hao] and I are definitely good friends."
PHOTO: HSIEH YIN-CHUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen Yu-hao, former chairman of the Tuntex Group who fled to the US, is listed as one of the country's 10 most-wanted fugitives.
Shih has launched a campaign inviting a million people to join him in a sit-in to pressure Chen Shui-bian to step down.
DPP legislators have said that his campaign to oust the president was linked to the fugitive tycoon, who during the 2004 presidential election had accused Chen Shui-bian of accepting millions of dollars in illegal political donations.
Shih yesterday also said he was under surveillance.
"I am just a civilian. My conduct has nothing to do with government business. Why am I being followed and bugged?" he asked.
DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun, in Ilan yesterday, said that the party would "absolutely not cover up" irregularities by the president if he had committed any.
Shih's campaign to oust Chen Shui-bian was "wrong," Yu said.
Yu said he believed the president was not involved in any wrongdoing in relation to corruption allegations involving his family members and close aides.
If the president had really made an error, the public could press him to step down through constitutional procedures, such as a recall or impeachment motions, Yu said.
Yu said the nation's laws stipulate that the president will be removed from office if he is impeached, if a presidential recall proposal is passed in a public referendum, or if he is convicted of sedition or treason.
However, so far the president had not been proven to have committed any crimes, Yu said, and he called on the public not to resort to measures that fall outside the constitutional system.
Yu said that while he respected the protesters' freedom to express their opinions, attempting to oust the president through demonstrations would only jeopardize political stability and disrupt the lives of local residents.
He said such tactics would create a vicious cycle that encouraged people to resort to these methods to topple those in power in future.
Separately, Vice President Annette Lu (
She urged the public to take a rational attitude toward dealing with the nation's challenges.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (
In related news, members of the Democratic Action League and the president's supporters got into a shouting match and scuffled with police who tried to separate them when both parties turned up at a temple in Chiayi County.
The Democratic Action League has obtained a permit to use Ketagelan Boulevard from Sept. 9 to Sept. 10 for its campaign urging the president to step down.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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