Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday urged Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to make a choice between his multiple loyalties when dealing with the pan-blue rally to be held on April 10.
Lin asked Ma to take every citizens' rights into consideration, and not think only of the pan-blue camp's supporters.
At a news conference held at the Executive Yuan yesterday, Lin said that the Cabinet issued an official letter to the Taipei City Government asking Ma to reconsider the possibility of revoking the permit for the April 10 pan-blue rally since it is likely that illegal rallies and turmoil will occur in the city again, in light of the two previous cases.
"We have seen the bloodshed which happened on March 26 and April 3. Do we really have to see it happen again on April 10?" Lin said.
"The Taipei City Government cannot continue to take a laissez-faire attitude toward the massive rallies and let the demonstrations continue endlessly," said Lin, pointing out that the Executive Yuan has received many calls from the public concerning fears about the riots that are happening almost once a week.
Lin urged Ma to show his resolution to deal with the upcoming rally in accordance with the law.
"Mayor Ma cannot burden people's lives with the chaos caused by such turmoil, just because he is confused about the many hats he wears as the mayor of the capital, the campaign manager of the pan-blue camp and the vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party," Lin said, adding that many citizens are starting to lose their generosity and patience toward Ma.
Lin asked Ma and his officials not to divert focus from the matter by making inconsistent remarks attacking the central government, saying Ma's attacks were a result of his guilty conscience for mishandling the recent protests.
Shortly after Lin held the news conference, Ma criticized Lin's remarks, saying that they had trespassed on the authority of the Taipei City Government and that the Cabinet has no right to ask the city government to revoke the April 10 rally's permit.
According to the Law on Local Government Systems (
"We still don't know what will happen during Saturday's protest. I think it is inappropriate for the Cabinet to slough off the responsibility on to the city government," Ma said.
Ma also denounced the National Police Administration (NPA) for dispersing the college students who had been staging a sit-in and "hunger strike" at CKS Memorial Hall on Sunday night. About fifteen students are taking turns going without food for twelve hours, calling their action a "hunger strike."
Although the students were carried away from CKS Memorial Hall on Sunday night, the students yesterday returned to the same place to continue their relay-race-like fast.
"The NPA's actions were so authoritarian as to turn Taiwan into a `police state,'" Ma said. "I think the NPA got the wrong targets when it comes to maintaining public safety."
Ma said that it was completely unnecessary to disperse the students, and he asked why the former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
Chen Cheng-feng (
Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (
Huang promised students that he will pass their demands to President Chen Shui-bian (
However, some people who stood around the students used abusive language at Huang and even tried to beat him when he left.
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