The holding of a meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and PFP chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has been cast into doubt by the inability of the two sides to agree on a format for the event.
The president wants to invite the heads of all parties to a closed-door meeting to discuss issues without limitation as to topic.
The PFP camp, however, wants the discussions to be in public and exclusively between the president and Soong.
To iron out the differences, Secretary-general to the Presidential Office Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) is scheduled to meet PFP Secretary-General David Chung (鍾榮吉) tomorrow to pave the way for the gathering.
"I would like to sit down with heads of all political parties to discuss domestic and international affairs. Given that [all parties] are working for the interests of the people, I wish to show we harbor no prejudice against any party nor will we insist [on who should attending the meeting]," Chen said yesterday, while visiting a harbor in Changhwa county.
The president continued to pitch for his version of a meeting of all the parties after it was first introduced on Double Tenth National Day on Thursday.
During his speech to mark the occasion Chen suggested that all parties sit down in cooperation and replace pointless confrontation with rational debate so as to harness the government's power and channel it into ways to improve people's lives.
Soong immediately reacted positively to Chen's call, proposing to discuss subjects concerning national identity, economic development, cross-strait relations and political reform.
But the format of the meeting is causing difficulties.
Although KMT Chairman Lien Chan indicated Friday that he might be willing to attend a meeting to discuss economic matters, the PFP appears not to want to share the limelight with its putative blue-camp ally.
PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉) said yesterday that communications between the PFP and KMT had never been a problem, and that it was therefore unnecessary for KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to join the meeting
As for TSU chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), Hsieh indicated the PFP does not seek to give advice to the TSU because it is not a ruling party.
The spokesman said that a leaders' summit would tend to be reduced to mere formalities, which is the reason why the PFP preferred a dialogue between Soong and Chen only in public.
KMT officials said Lien was pleased to see the meeting happen, but there was no decision as yet on whether he would participate.
Analysts believe that Soong's immediate response to hold talks is a way to divert public attention away from the party's setback following the debacle of party darling Diane Lee's (李慶安) false accusations against the acting head of the Department of Health Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲).
Lee accused Twu of being involved in a sexual harassment case last week only to find that the alleged harasser was a completely different man.
The image of the party took a nosedive as a result.
For the president, the meeting will provide some hope of the cessation of the partisan opposition that has been a stumbling block for his administration since it came to power two years ago
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