Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu, who could lose her own future income if proposed legislation is adopted, didn't say whether she supports in principle the idea of cutting former officials' pensions.
Lu made the remarks in response to media inquiries while attending the Conference on National Human Rights Institutes in the Asia-Pacific.
The pension-cut plan for former presidents and vice presidents was first proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) last week, but legislators from across party lines soon jumped on the bandwagon.
Lin proposed to lower the stipends paid to former leaders and fully abolish those paid to former vice presidents by revising the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例).
The Presidential Office supported the proposal in a statement released by secretary-general Yu Shyi-kun. But Lu was not nearly as enthusiastic.
"This is not about myself, but about the nation's system," Lu said.
Lu said that her and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) already set an example by cutting their salaries in half when they came into office in 2000.
"I hope the initiators [of legislation to cut pensions] can cut their own salaries before they make this demand of others," Lu said.
The vice president said that she believes as long as the reform plan is not motivated by selfishness or emotion -- but is rather rooted in altruism and social justice -- the pension-cut proposal will gain public support.
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