Human rights lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said yesterday that emerging “third force” political parties — such as the Green Party, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the New Power Party (NPP) — should carefully consider their relationships with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Lai questioned recent remarks from veteran political activist Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), who on Friday said that the DPP should yield at least 30 constituencies to minor parties in next year’s legislative elections.
Basing their campaigns on “begging for constituencies” from the DPP would make it impossible for emerging political parties to monitor the actions of a future DPP administration, Lai said.
He added that “third force” parties should make clear whether they espouse different values and policy visions than the DPP, or whether they have joined the legislative campaign only to prevent the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from retaining a majority.
If the latter is true, would-be candidates could simply sign up for the DPP primaries or seek DPP endorsements as independents, Lai said.
He said that the Green Party was the only party to oppose Taiwan’s membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in contrast with the DPP’s support of conditional membership.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Lai cautioned new political parties to steer away from “bigwig politics.”
“Under Lin I-hsiung’s shadow, the ‘third force’ is standing at the crossroads,” Lai wrote.
The SDP and the NPP emerged from the Taiwan Citizens’ Union, an advocacy group that was heavily influenced by Lin when it was founded last year.
Lai said that too close of a relationship with the DPP could hamper the independence of new parties and prevent them from becoming progressive forces in the legislature.
He also asked whether voters are easily “transferable” between the DPP and minor parties in the absence of long-term communication and organization efforts.
Lin sparked controversy on Wednesday for pledging his vote to veteran political activist and former DPP chairman Shih Ming-te’s (施明德) presidential bid, but later said that he was misinterpreted.
“I am not endorsing him; I merely said that I would give him my single vote. It is that simple,” Lin said on Friday, adding he would vote for Shih purely out of camaraderie in fighting against the KMT regime.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
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