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Anti-Chen group cancels warmup

Members of a citizen alliance to unseat President Chen Shui-bian yesterday call on Vice President Annette Lu to use Chen's absence to suspend him and assume power in his absence, pending investigations into his involvement in recent corruption scandals. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Satisfied with the past two days' practice sit-ins, the anti-President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign headquarters yesterday announced that it would cancel its practice sit-in originally planned for today and save its energy for the "real thing," which begins Saturday.

"After these past two days' practice, all staff have acquired experience and learned how to maintain control of the situation," said Chang Fu-chung (張富忠), a member of the anti-Chen campaign camp's decision-making committee. "The headquarters therefore decided to cancel the practice sit-in and, starting [today], prepare for the real thing."

Chang made the remarks at a press conference held to update the press and public on the sit-in protest launched by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) which aims to force Chen to step down.

At the press conference, the camp also publicized its expenditures since staging its first warm-up for their sit-in protest last Friday.

According to Lu Tai-nien (呂台年), another member of the camp's decision-making committee, the anti-Chen campaign headquarters has received a total of NT$111,211,563 (US$3.4 million), and that as of Aug. 28, the camp had spent NT$3.99 million on advertising and used NT$780,000 as a deposit for the used of the Ketagalan Boulevard space, which is refundable after the event is over.

The daily expenditure for the sit-in practice since last Friday averaged roughly NT$160,000, which included the renting of musical equipment, stage and mobile restrooms.

Meanwhile, the camp's spokeswoman Ho De-fen (賀德芬), who in the past days has expressed her concern about the "commercialization" of the protest and nitpicked over details on how the demonstration should be conducted, did not attend the camp's meeting yesterday.

Chen Yao-chang (陳耀昌), another member of the camp's decision-making committee, said that Ho often over-emphasized her own opinions, which might mislead the public into thinking that the camp is divided on how to conduct the protest. Chen Yao-chang said that "Chang will for the time being sit in as the camp's spokesman while Shih will within the 24 hours have a chat with Ho."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Action Alliance yesterday urged all of the nation's political parties to authorize Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to take over as acting president while President Chen is on his foreign visit and to investigate all of his alleged wrongdoings.

"If the investigation finds the president innocent, let him retake office. If he or his family members are found to have been involved in corruption, then the vice president should be formally installed as president to restore constitutional order," said Huang Kuang-kuo (黃光國), convener of the group's "Depose the President" campaign, at a press conference.

Over the weekend, several labor unions launched an online signature campaign demanding that President Chen step down.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang
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