Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun might have played a key role in the recent spat over proposals to rewrite the Constitution and US concerns that this would amount to changes in the "status quo."
Yu ordered the party to draft a revision of the Constitution's general provisions, which define the country's name, territory and flag, by Sept 20.
President Chen Shui-bian's (
When Chen indicated that he wanted to wait on the issue -- presumably a result of pressure from the US -- Yu insisted that he move ahead, regardless of reactions within or outside the party.
DPP legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) has said that Yu didn't agree to defer the "pro-independence version" until participants at a meeting on Oct. 2 -- representing Chen, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), and the DPP caucus -- strongly disapproved of his plan.
Yu had initially wanted the "pro-independence version" to become the party's official stance as soon as possible, because he put it on the agenda of the DPP's Central Executive Committee on Oct. 4 with the idea of calling a national convention of the party to finalize it.
In the end, the DPP's Central Executive Committee adjourned without reaching a conclusion on the draft revision because many committee members felt the party would only open itself to attack if it passed the proposal. Yu yielded to the other members on the issue.
A senior party official told the Taipei Times yesterday that Yu's efforts to push the pro-independence version of the constitutional amendment were motivated by his personal ambition.
"The party will have its primary for the 2008 presidential election early next year. His [Yu's] initiative in pursing Taiwan independence could help him score higher in the primary," the DPP official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Ker has said that DPP supporters are more inclined to favor a pro-independence line now -- partly because middle-of-the-road voters feel disappointed after the recent wave of scandals centering on members of the Presidential Office and first family and partly because resentment had been aroused by the anti-Chen campaign.
The DPP faithful believe the anti-Chen campaign is a scheme of the pro-unification camp.
Given the shifts in the the party's political base, Yu's effort to push the pro-independence version of a constitutional amendment has put the premier in an "awkward" situation, the party official said.
The DPP chairman is also believed to be interested in running in the 2008 presidential election.
Su has reportedly tried to find a middle ground between unification and independence on cross-strait issues since he became premier, and Yu was forcing Su to "take a stand" on the issue, the source said.
A second anonymous source told the Taipei Times that a report on the impact of redefining Taiwan's constitutional territory was banned from being distributed to the Central Executive Committee as it enumerated numerous consequences the country would suffer as a result of such a change.
The report was supposed to be sent to the committee for reference.
"Yu was really aggressive in that version, but the approach he adopted was disputable. Other than holding the report back, Yu's pro-independence version bypassed a task force charged with drafting the party's version of constitutional amendment," the second source said.
The task force began operations in June last year and by April it had produced two proposals -- one on changing Taiwan's form of government from semi-presidential to presidential and another on instituting a parliamentary system of government, with both leaving general provisions unchanged.
Huang Shiu-tuan (黃秀端), a political science professor at Soochow University, said that she had been "surprised" that Yu had brought up the "pro-independence" version.
"I don't know why the pro-independence version suddenly emerged because there used to be a consensus in the DPP policy department about avoiding sovereignty issues," Huang said.
She said that including sovereignty issues in the constitutional reform package would "destroy the opportunity for constitutional amendment with regard to systems of government," which she said would be a crucial element to resolving the political differences that have divided the country.
Huang said that political unrest that has existed since the DPP came to power in 2000 has made many people believe that the loopholes in current system need to be changed by either moving to a presidential system or to a parliamentary system.
"I wished politicians would not try to change the general provisions until a consensus is reached by society. They should focus on reforming the system of government," Huang said.
Wang Yeh-li (王業立), a political science professor at Tunghai University, said that it was understandable that Yu brought up the "pro-independence" version now.
"From the angle of being a DPP party leader, being a strong supporter of Chen, and his own future [ie, his presidential ambitions], we can't rule out the possibility that the move was for his own good," Wang said.
Wang said that stressing sovereignty issues would be helpful in shifting the focus from the anti-Chen campaign and consolidating the support of DPP members.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching