KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday urged President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to take responsibility for the consequences triggered by his recent remarks on cross-strait relations.
Lien said Chen's "obviously radical" speech has violated the ROC Constitution to which he pledged allegiance, negated the "one China" principle of the Constitution and impaired the integrity of the constitutional definition on the country's status.
"There has been unrest among the people and puzzlement in the international community, while communist China has obtained a golden opportunity to propagate its sovereignty claim over Taiwan and the hawks a strong excuse [to use military force against Taiwan]," Lien said.
Also, stock market investors have suffered losses of NT$500 billion to NT$600 billion over the past two days as a result of Chen's remarks, Lien said.
"We don't know if he will apologize, but he certainly should take his due responsibility and must have the courage to do so," Lien said.
Taiwan's stock index plunged 284 points on Monday, the first business day after Chen defined cross-strait relations as "one country on each side of the Strait" in his address to the 29th annual meeting of the pro-independence World Federation of Taiwanese Associations on Saturday.
Chen on Tuesday blamed the media for oversimplifying his remarks and said a more accurate summary of his comments would be "the two sides enjoy parity in sovereignty."
Lien said this was the sort of tactic adopted habitually by the DPP, namely "refusing to admit its faults and yet pointing the finger at others."
Lien argued that the problem would not be solved by simply reducing it to one of language.
"There would be no problem if he [Chen] is able to tell the pro-independence activists on a public occasion that the Republic of China has always been a sovereign state. But if he isn't honest enough to do so, the fundamental problem will remain," Lien said.
Lien further expressed his disapproval of the way the DPP government has handled the crisis.
The KMT chairman added that Chen has left the aftermath of his comments for others to handle.
While concerned government officials have tried to play down Chen's remarks over the past days, Chen himself did not explain the matter to the people immediately but sent officials "to go thousands of miles away to Washington to explain it to Americans," Lien said.
"Where has the dignity of the country and the Taiwanese people gone?" Lien asked.
Meanwhile, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) urged President Chen to exercise circumspection in his speech and called on China to avoid taking any move that would hurt the people on the two sides of the Strait.
Soong said raising the issue of holding a referendum will not help resolve any problems but will create more problems, as the Taiwanese people do not wish to change the status quo of the country at the moment.
Despite their many differences, all political parties in Taiwan agree on one point -- that the well-being of the people must be protected and the freedom and democracy of the country must be safeguarded, Soong said.
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