The Republic of China (ROC) Constitution is the greatest obstacle to the normalization of the country, Taiwan New Constitution Foundation founder Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said on Friday.
“Therefore we must replace the ROC Constitution with a ‘Taiwan constitution,’” he said in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper), adding that the foundation had established a committee that would release a draft “Taiwan constitution” later this year.
“Taiwan was under colonial rule for a long time in its early years, so Taiwanese lacked a national consciousness,” he said. “It was not until former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) took office that such a strong consciousness emerged.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Citing the findings of a foundation poll, Koo said that 91 percent of Taiwanese favor normalization of the nation.
Koo said there are many instances where a lack of normalization affects the nation.
For example, elected presidents are often reluctant to sing the ROC national anthem — which is firmly tied to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — during Double Ten National Day celebrations, he said.
Some recipients of donations from Taiwan confuse the gifts as coming from China, which could be because such donations are often delivered by China Airlines, he added.
“It will be hard to change the Constitution, but it is not impossible,” he said.
Regarding the KMT, Koo said that if the party were to change its name to the “Taiwanese Nationalist Party” it would likely see a significant increase in its number of supporters.
Koo said that he had suggested to then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) that the KMT change its name.
“Wang told me that it would not be easy for the KMT to change its name,” he said. “This is especially the case because of the party’s affinity toward China.”
Koo said that a KMT more focused on Taiwan would mean two major parties that would share the responsibilities of the country’s democratic development.
“The Democratic Progressive Party must also be subject to checks and balances. It is my hope that there can be two parties responsible for Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.
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