An association of former policy advisers who served during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term in office yesterday said that it will strive toward winning the Nobel Peace Prize for Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the historic meeting that took place between the two in November last year, adding that it will formally submit the nomination at the end of October.
Former national policy adviser Lin Shui-chi (林水吉) and association chairman Liu Shen-liang (劉盛良) visited Ma last month and brought up the plan, Lin told a news conference.
“The former president, upon hearing it, was all smiles and looked full of expectation,” Lin said.
When asked why Ma was not invited to the news conference, Lin said Ma wanted to keep the plan low-key.
“He certainly would have a lot to say when he wins the prize,” Lin added.
“You might wonder why we held this conference when Ma said he wants to keep it low-key. The reason is that we want to promote the value of peace. No leader, no matter how aggressive or barbaric, would dare say that they are against peace. Wars and invaders also claimed to pursue peace,” he said.
Liu, who was chosen as the convener of a committee to promote the nomination, said Ma contributed to cross-strait peace during his eight years in office, “which was also a great contribution to Asia’s peace and world peace.”
“The handshake between Ma and Xi has turned a new page for the two sides after 66 years,” Liu said, adding that as the cross-strait peace has set a paradigm for world peace, “Ma’s and Xi’s endeavor for peace deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.”
If the leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait could win the prize, “it would be more meaningful than signing a cross-strait peace agreement,” the association said in a statement.
However, Military Civil Faculty Alliance Party chairman Chang Tzu (張賜) said he is worried about the timing.
Chang said that the controversy over Mega International Commercial Bank, whose New York branch was handed a US$180 million fine by a US regulator for violating money laundering laws, might implicate people who served in the Ma administration.
“We can put the nomination issue off a bit,” he said.
Ma’s office later yesterday issued a statement, saying that Ma had not been notified about the news conference.
The office said that several former national policy advisers, including Liu and Lin, did visit Ma and expressed their wish to push for his nomination, but Ma, while expressing his gratitude, clearly told them that it “was not appropriate and did not encourage them to go forward with it.”
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