A new organization created by former Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called for the government to recognize the anniversary of the nation’s first democratic presidential election as National Sovereignty Independence Day.
Naming the group 1996 Consensus Promotion Alliance, Lu said the basis of Taiwan’s sovereignty was established through the nation’s open and democratic elections, starting with the presidential election on March 23, 1996.
“When everybody cast their vote in 1996 … that move showed that we had become a sovereign country,” she told a press conference.
PHOTO: CNA
The alliance intends to launch a series of campaigns over the next two years to promote the so-called “1996 consensus” and hopes candidates in the 2012 presidential election will accept the consensus as a “basis for their candidacy.”
“We want to resolve the political differences between the pan-blue and pan-green camp and for [all of us] to recognize the sovereignty of this country,” Lu said.
The alliance, made up of more than 30 non-profit organizations from doctors’ and teachers’ associations to environmental group has pledged its support for the promotional campaign.
The alliance said it would hold motorcade rallies nationwide starting in Taipei on Tuesday to promote the “1996 consensus.”
Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) called on the public to accept the notion that “there is no ‘1992 consensus,’ it doesn’t exist” and instead to support the “1996 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992 between Taiwanese and Chinese representatives, under which both sides acknowledged that there was only “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what this means.
The Democratic Progressive Party says the “1992 consensus” does not exist and that it was fabricated by then-Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起).
Su said he coined the term in 2000 to facilitate cross-strait talks.
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