President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday reaffirmed his resolution to realize constitutional reform, saying that now that the Legislative Yuan has passed the constitutional amendment package, he will move forward with public consultations.
"I have authorized Secretary-general of the Presidential Office Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to ask experts and opinion leaders from different fields to draw up our new Constitution," Chen said when addressing an annual Lawyer's Day celebration ceremony.
"I here stress again that the second stage of constitutional reform is to make substantial steps in probing the greatest common denominator of the entire country," Chen said.
Chen returned to Taiwan yesterday morning after completing a seven-day state visit to two of Taiwan's allies in Central America. During the trip he also announced that Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) supported his idea to simplify the nation's elections by holding them once every two years, with one election for central government posts such as president, vice president and legislator and another for local government posts such as mayor and city councilor.
The Legislative Yuan passed a constitutional amendment to halve the number of legislative seats and adjust the electoral system during an extraordinary session last month. Meanwhile, Su has consulted with social welfare groups, gender equality rights activists, labor union leaders and journalist representatives to listen to their suggestions.
Chen yesterday said that while he realized there are many dissenting views on the constitutional reform issue, he will not let this obstruct the realization of his promise of a new Constitution.
We will eventually find a consensus, he said.
Earlier yesterday morning, Chen called off a press conference originally scheduled to be held at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport on his return, to introduce achievements and knowledge gained from the overseas trip.
The cancellation was in "[consideration] that all members of the delegation ... are extremely exhausted after the seven-day trip," Chen said while expressing appreciation to members of the delegation through the plane's broadcasting system before landing.
Noting the time constraints of the trip, Chen said he was the chief of an "Iron Men delegation." Members passed only three of the six nights away in hotels, due to the tight schedule.
The delegation departed on Aug. 30 at midnight and arrived in Panama on Aug. 31 after making a refueling stop of less than seven hours in Honolulu.
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