The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential contenders largely managed to avoid a war of words yesterday during their second televised debate as they focused on expounding on their platforms before the party conducts opinion polls and holds a party member vote to decide its candidate next month.
The candidates appeared to heed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) call for unity and toned down their rhetoric.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) asked former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to offer a clear explanation of his theory of "a constitutional one China" (憲法一中) before and after the 150-minute debate held in Chiayi County yesterday afternoon.
Saying he would not engage in a war of words, Hsieh called on Su to refrain from making a deliberate misinterpretation out of context.
"He makes me feel like I have become a pro-unification supporter overnight," Hsieh said with a smile before the debate.
Vice President Annette Lu (
DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said all the contenders must focus on policy and the country rather than running down the other contestants.
The public might be disappointed and think that it was "a gangster's turf war" if such personal attacks went too far, he said.
As long as DPP supporters do not split, Yu said the DPP would not be divided and though the four contenders may have different opinions at the moment, they will eventually unite.
At the beginning of the debate, Hsieh said if he were elected president, he would attempt to a form coalition with opposition parties to help pass major bills and government budgets in the legislature.
Saying it was a complicated issue, Hsieh asked the public to let him explain it at another time, but said that an agreement would need to be signed between the co-operating parties.
Unlike an earlier argument by his supporters that the Executive Yuan should be held responsible for the legislature's failure to pass this year's government budget, Hsieh yesterday said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was the main culprit.
Hsieh also promised, if elected, to apply to join the UN with the name "Taiwan," further shorten compulsory military service and create more opportunities, particularly for young people.
Su said he would like to know how Hsieh could make the political alliance work, saying that it would be great if he could spare some his wisdom now rather than wait until he becomes the president.
"He can tell President Chen in private if he doesn't want others to know," he said.
As former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) is in China for an economic forum and looks set to sign an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, Su urged the party's presidential contenders to realize that their opponents are the KMT, the KMT's presidential hopeful, Ma Ying-jou (馬英九), and China.
Yu said that Taiwan's biggest problem was that it is not a normal country. He pledged to change Taiwan into a more normal country, improve the economy, take care of the disadvantaged and recover the KMT's stolen party assets if he were elected president.
Lu highlighted China's military threat and increasing defense budgets as well as increasing domestic public debts.
She said that the deteriorating economy had a lot to do with the three former premiers -- Yu, Hsieh and Su.
Lu promised to push for constitutional reform, recruit outstanding talent from the DPP and opposition parties, connect Taiwan with the world and advocate "soft power."
As the country's emission levels of carbon dioxide are three times the world's average, Lu called on the public to take global warming seriously and said that she hoped the Executive Yuan's "big investment" project would not end up being the "big warming" project.
On global warming, all four aspirants said that they would attach great importance to environmental issues and respect the opinions of non-governmental organizations if elected.
Stressing the importance of each ethnic group in the country, Su also pledged to establish a language policy to protect all languages in Taiwan.
"We need legislation to protect all languages and help create a united nation with a diverse culture," Su said.
While Lu and Hsieh both agreed that the government should put greater efforts into embracing different ethnic groups and respecting their languages, Yu retorted that ethnicity was not an issue in Taiwan.
"There is only the issue of identification in Taiwan. We are all Taiwanese as long as everyone identifies with the country," Yu said, lashing out at the KMT for ignoring disadvantaged groups.
Three links
On the issue of three links -- direct transportation, postal, and trade links between Taiwan and China -- the four hopefuls agreed that the three links can only be established after Taiwan's sovereignty and national security are ensured.
"We can't close our doors, but we can't put all our hopes in China, either ? There must be negotiations before opening the three links, and the negotiations can't be hijacked by politics," Hsieh said.
Lu said the government should not open the three links until China promised not to attack Taiwan, adding that the country should use its geographic advantages to become a "global bridge" by developing air and sea transportation.
Su, on the other hand, stated that the government needed to have "active management" on cross-strait economics and to normalize cross-strait relations before opening the three links.
Arguing that China is Taiwan's enemy, Su called on supporters and members to vote for him and allow the "local power" to win the presidential election again.
"A competent leader should not be questioned about his stance on national identification. The situation in Taiwan will be stable if the local power wins again in 2008," Su said in his closing statement.
Elect a female
Calling on the people to elect a female president, Lu pledged to push for the establishment of a new Constitution and remap the administrative districts if elected.
"President Chen can conform that as his vice president, I have cared about the people for the past seven years," she said.
Acknowledging that the DPP did not take good care of the people, Yu promised to rebuild the public's trust, while vowing to promote normalization of the country.
"Maintaining the status quo will only cause another tragedy ?Supporting me is supporting Taiwan independence," Yu said.
Responding to Su's challenge to help the pan-green camp gain the majority in the legislature, Hsieh said reaching that goal would not be difficult if party members could reconcile and embrace each other.
"Negotiation can't be done if people don't want to reconcile with each other... If some party members know nothing about tolerance, they won't be able to look after the interests of the people," he said.
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