Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday gave mixed responses to the call from one party member for the president to drop out of the DPP.
Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀), a DPP member and former director of the DPP's Ilan County chapter, sent a letter to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that made five recommendations. He asked the president to immediately withdraw from the party in order to break through the current political deadlock, and urged him to work for the nation's future as the president of the people rather than head of the party.
He also requested the president "not interfere, not express concern and not dictate" the party primaries for upcoming elections, including the party's chairmanship election in January, the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections in December next year, the legislative elections in 2007 and the presidential election in 2008.
In addition, he called on the president to accept the party's defeat in the Dec. 3 local elections and to apologize to the people of Taiwan.
He also urged the president to acknowledge the contribution made by former party chairman Su Tseng-chang (
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) of the party's Welfare State Alliance faction yesterday said that he respects individual party members' opinions. However, Hsu appealed to party members to respect the president's personal choice on whether to drop out of the party.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (
"Although the president has admitted the election failure in his weekly newsletter, he has has not yet made public his personal viewpoint on the overall elections and the path the party will take in the future," Huang said. "I'm afraid if he continues to keep quiet, more and more party members will come out to voice their displeasure."
Huang, however, said that it's too extreme to ask the president to drop out of the party, and that party members should calm down and wait for the president to give his personal opinion on the party's loss in the recent polls and the party's future course.
Huang said that although he is reluctant to describe the president as a "lame duck," it's true that the president's authority has been challenged by many party members.
Since the party currently has two major forces fighting against each other -- one supporting and one opposing the president -- Huang said that the conflict is bound to sabotage the party and the president.
Huang proposed to hold a public or closed-door debate to discuss the party's future path because the worst scenario is to do nothing in the face of the current conflict within the DPP.
Chen Ou-po yesterday issued a short statement saying that he felt sorry to see his personal letter made public and cause unnecessary misunderstanding. He also expressed regret if the letter causes any trouble for the president.
Meanwhile, in reaction to the call for Chen to drop out of the party, Yu Shyi-kun, who just resigned from his office of secretary-general of the Presidential Office, said that he could not comment on the matter since he has no understanding of the incident.
"But I believe that each DPP member and governmental official did his or her best in the elections," Yu said. "And I don't think rank-and-files members' opinions will impact my chairmanship election. I believe they will make judicious decisions on election day."
additional reporting by Jewel Huang
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