President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) proposal of a referendum on a possible cross-strait peace accord is a “fake issue,” People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said yesterday.
Peace is a shared value, but even China knows to focus first on the economy before talking politics, Soong said, adding that now is not the time to discuss the issue.
The reason Ma is talking about a peace agreement now is because he has no policy achievements to show for his first term in office, Soong said.
“Can the president of the Republic of China sign a peace accord with the president of the People’s Republic of China [Hu Jintao (胡錦濤)]?” Soong asked, directing the question toward Ma.
Saying that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had used referendums to divert the public’s focus, Soong added that the Ma administration’s lack of policy implementation cannot be replaced with the vision of his proposed “golden decade” policies.
Soong said that being president means one needs to move in a steady manner without resorting to word games and semantics. Cross-strait issues need to be solved in stages and cannot be rushed, he added.
Soong also called on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to negotiate with the party in power over cross-strait issues.
“The future of Taiwan cannot be decided by just the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT],” Soong said, adding that the legislature needed to be included in the process and that the nation’s future cannot be monopolized by two political parties.
It is best to leave the cross-strait issue alone, Soong said, adding that the more the problem is tinkered with, the worse it becomes.
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