Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Addressing a gathering of the Association of Friends of Lee Teng-hui, Lee said that the country needs to create a new constitution rather than revising the existing one, which has been amended six times in the past.
`Impossible'
"It's impossible to revise the Constitution. I've revised it six times already," Lee said, referring to the six constitutional revisions carried out during his 12-year presidency.
However, advocating that the constitution should be made according to the people's wishes in a referendum, Lee said that the Referendum Law (
He said that the most pressing matter now is to amend the Referendum Law, but this could only be achieved when the pan-green camp becomes the majority in the legislature after the year-end legislative elections.
Composition
"The existing composition of the pan-green and pan-blue lawmakers in the legislature makes it very difficult to amend the Referendum Law, which, if not amended, can't be used to create a new constitution.
"Chen's plan to elect an ad hoc national assembly or incorporate people's rights in the constitutional revision also can't overhaul the existing constitution satisfactorily," Lee said.
Responding to Chen's inauguration speech, Lee said it had to be conciliatory because Chen realized that his presidential victory was narrow and he had to take the other half of the electorate who didn't vote for him into consideration for the sake of social stability in the country.
"I can understand why Chen would say what he did in his inauguration speech because I was a president myself. It was because the difference in numbers between the pan-green and pan-blue supporters was too narrow, which poses the danger of Taiwan becoming unstable," Lee said.
Chen won a razor-thin election victory by only some 29,000 votes.
Lee said that Chen's narrow victory was the reason for the US opposing Taiwan in creating a new constitution, and "the US would have different opinions if Chen had won by more than 300,000 votes. That way the government would have had strong enough support to go ahead with creating a new constitution."
Drubbing
Commenting on the US' stance in supporting Chen's constitutional amendment plan, Senior Presidential Advisor Koo Kuan-min (
"Taiwan is not a colonial state of the US. It can't stop its plan [to create a constitution] simply because the US opposes it. Where is Taiwan's sovereignty then?" Koo said.
Commenting on the pan-blue alliance's moves to deny the election defeat and its insistence on overturning the election results,Lee said that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) looked like a psychiatric patient on March 20 after losing a depressing presidential-election battle. Lee urged Lien to give up his incessant pursuit of the country's top job.
"On March 20, Lien exposed his true self and some psychiatrists told me Lien's face looked just like that of a psychiatric patient. He claimed his contributions were for the sake of the country, but actually those were just his selfish pursuits.
"Lien was not predestined to become a president, but he wanted to sacrifice the country in order to fulfill his own desires. He should stop these vain pursuits," Lee said.
BAIL APPEALS: The former vice premier was ordered to be held incommunicado despite twice being granted bail and paying a total of NT$12 million in bond The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered the detention of former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who is being investigated for alleged corruption while serving as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022, and that he be held incommunicado. The court made the ruling during a bail hearing after prosecutors appealed its bail ruling twice. Cheng on Saturday was released after posting bail of NT$5 million (US$153,818). However, after prosecutors lodged an appeal, the High Court on Monday revoked the original ruling and ordered the Taoyuan District Court to hold another bail hearing. On Tuesday, the district court granted bail to Cheng a second
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
HAN KUANG: The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers said The armed forces would for the first time test new rules of engagement (ROE) at this month’s annual Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers told a news conference in Taipei. ROE cards would be issued to select combat troops to test their ability to function without tight control, they said. The most recent edition of the rules was published last year, they said. One of the cards’ two templates identifies enemy targets that soldiers