Independence group tells DPP to ditch `resolutions'

A pro-independence group yesterday asked Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential hopefuls to ditch the party's Resolutions Concerning Taiwan's Future and to promise to abandon President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) "four noes" pledge if elected.

Peter Wang (王獻極), head of the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign, said the DPP resolutions no longer represent public opinion because they were adopted in May 1999 in the runup to the 2000 presidential election to court voters who identified with the "Republic of China (ROC)."

The resolutions declare that "Taiwan is an independent sovereignty and acknowledges that its constitutional name is the Republic of China."

They also state that "Taiwan does not belong to the People's Republic of China [PRC]," and that the PRC's "one China" principle or its "one country, two systems" model does not apply to Taiwan.

Criticizing the resolutions as "self-deceiving" and "narrow-minded," Wang said the party must drop them and adhere to the party platform which focuses on Taiwan.

The DPP platform states that an independent, sovereign republic of Taiwan must be established and a new constitution must be written and approved by the Taiwanese.

"The DPP's presidential hopefuls will only obtain the support of the Taiwanese if they trash the resolutions because they obstruct efforts to the nation's parth to normalization," he said.

Taiwan is not an independent country but rather an autonomous economic entity if it continues to hold on to the ROC system of the Chinese government in exile, he said.

Describing the "four noes" as stumbling blocks to the country's democratization effort, Wang also requested that the four aspirants promise to forsake the "four noes" pledge if they are elected president.

The "four noes" refer to the pledge Chen made during his first inaugural speech in 2000. He promised that as long as China does not use military force against Taiwan, he would "not declare independence, not change the national title, not enshrine the `state-to-state' model in the Constitution and not endorse a referendum on formal independence."

So far, out of the four DPP presidential aspirants, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun is the only one who has openly said he would ditch both resolutions and Chen's "four noes" pledge if elected.