Wed, Dec 06, 2000 page1

• Cross-strait bodies may be merged

  POLITICS Although the Presidential Office may combine the NUC and President's Advisory Group on Cross-Strait Relations, the opposition says the idea won't work

  • By Joyce Huang and Lin Chieh-yu / STAFF REPORTERS
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  The Presidential Office is working on a merger of the National Unification Council (NUC, 國統會) and the President's Advisory Group on Cross-Strait Relations (兩岸跨黨派小組) to establish a new cross-strait policymaking institution, a National Security Council (國安會) official told the Taipei Times yesterday.

  "Possible titles for the new institution include the Joint Committee of the Council and the Group (兩會聯席會), the National Unification Development Council (NUDC, 國家統一發展委員會) and the National Development Council (國家發展會)," said the official, who preferred not to be identified.

  The official added that two principles underpinned the possible merger. First, the new institution will adhere to the Constitution of the Republic of China. Second, it will be able to redefine the relationship between the Council and the Group and "to create a new beginning in cross-strait relations."

  A source in the presidential office yesterday also told the Taipei Times that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has been resisting pressure from opposition parties to call an NUC meeting, was seriously studying the feasibility of the merger.

  "Cross-strait issues are without a doubt the most important issue to ease the standoff and bridge the gap between the government and opposition parties," the source said.

  The source added that the merger was being raised as a trial balloon and, therefore, observation of the responses of opposition parties needed to be carried out before Chen reached a conclusion.

  If the president is to merge the NUC and the president's advisory group into a "National Unification Development Council," the DPP will not accept any cross-strait policymaking body based on the principle that unification is a predefined goal, said DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁).

  "If some people insist on calling it the NUDC, then do we not also have to respect pro-independence activists who are likely to insist on naming it the National Independence Development Council (國家獨立發展委員會)?" Wu asked, adding that DPP members were not allowed to attend the NUC according to a resolution passed by the party's Central Standing Committee.

  Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), however, said yesterday that "the merger was a good suggestion."

  "As for how the two should be integrated, both the opposition parties and the president's advisory group have to work out a solution together," Chang said.

  The KMT, nonetheless, yesterday expressed its opposition and urged Chen to hold another NUC meeting.

  "The merger will be a superfluous move. It will get more complicated," KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) said yesterday, urging the government to abandon its partisan ideology on the cross-strait issue.

  Speaker of the Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) also said that there would be doubts over how the merger would work.

  "One [the NUC] is an institution legalized by the legislature (體制內組織) while the other [the president's advisory group] is not (體制外組織). If the two are to be merged, there will be problems," Wang said, refusing to comment further on the merger.
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