Sun, Jul 07, 2002 page1

• Lien rejects Chen's cross-party pact

  • By Stephanie Low / STAFF REPORTER
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  KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday dismissed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) plan to create a "cross-party alliance for national stabilization" as a means to dodge his responsibility for the country's problems.

  Lien strongly disapproved of Chen's allegations that the opposition parties have opposed his administration deliberately and have rejected his proposition to form a coalition government -- situations cited by Chen as his reasons to consider such an alliance.

  "This makes us feel very sad. To slander and humiliate the opposition parties is not something the head of state should do," Lien said.

  Lien made the remarks while addressing an initiation ceremony held for a group of new party members in Taipei County.

  Lien said Chen had never specified that he wanted to form a coalition government and nobody had any idea he intended to create a coalition government "until yesterday."

  Over the past two years, Lien said, Chen had experimented with different forms of government ranging from the "government for all the people" and minority government to the "don't-know-what-it-is" government that has been in operation since the new legislature started in February.

  "Nobody has any idea what he has wanted to do over the past eight months [since the conclusion of the legislative elections in December]," Lien said.

  By contrast, the KMT had made it very clear that it would abide by the Constitution, meaning that the party winning the most legislative seats would obtain the right to form the government and would take full responsibility for its policies, Lien said. He said it was under this principle that the KMT and the PFP decided not to join the government.

  In addition, Lien said, Chen never had any intention to conduct party-to-party negotiations with opposition parties but had tried to form his government in a way similar to "ordering dishes."

  He gave as an example Chen's appointment of Tang Fei (唐飛), a KMT member, as premier two years ago, in which Chen avoided negotiating with the KMT for fear that the KMT would share most of his power.

  "In the formation of a coalition government in any democratic country around the world, none has ruled out party-to-party negotiations. We cannot order meat today and vegetables tomorrow like Chen is doing," Lien said.

  By forming the "alliance for national stabilization," Chen is trying to win over a minority of fence-sitting legislators who are vulnerable to the interests offered by the DPP, Lien said.

  Meanwhile, Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the PFP's Center of Policy Research, said his party will meet with the KMT next week to discuss the possibility of establishing an "anti-black gold alliance" to monitor Chen's alliance to prevent the country's "black gold" politics from worsening.
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