Two former DPP heavyweights and several liberal academics yesterday announced the establishment the "Tang wai round-table forum" (
At a meeting that was more like a reunion of aging politicians, participants urged people to retain the spirit of the tang wai, or outside the party, movement and blasted the DPP for governing the country based on ideology.
Former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (
"Taiwan's political scene is dominated by party politics. It is either pan-blue or pan-green. Regardless, we wish Taiwanese can keep the tang wai spirit," Hsu said.
The idea for the forum was floated about one month ago by Hsu and former DPP legislator Ju Gau-jeng (朱高正). Members include a dozen of longtime liberal academics and former DPP members.
Hsu is also trying to persuade former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (
Ju said that a survey showed 62 percent of people were disappointed with all political parties and he hoped the forum could serve as a stage on which intellectuals could speak their minds.
Both Hsu and Ju were once charismatic opposition leaders and contributed to democratization. But in the process of the nation's political transformation, both were marginalized. Both were revolutionaries, but could not find themselves a place in modern party politics.
With the two camps pitted against each other, Ju and Hsu are apparently trying to position themselves on a new political stage.
A staunch democracy campaigner who fought the KMT during the tang wai era in the 1970s and 1980s, Hsu was DPP chairman for six years until 1999 when he left the party due to his views on China policy.
Ju, dubbed as a "battleship of democracy," ridiculed the irrationality of the "permanent parliament," under which the KMT claimed its members could be re-elected once they recovered China. In late 1980s, he became the first legislator in Taiwan known to have resorted to physical violence to disrupt legislative proceedings and helped terminate the tenure of decades-old assemblymen and legislators.
His arrogance and ill-temper made him a controversial politician, eventually leading to his split with the party.
After they left the DPP, both men spent a lot of time advocating a more accommodating policy toward China and bitterly criticized the DPP's cross-strait policy.
In 2000, Hsu paired with former New Party legislator Josephine Chu (朱惠良) in the presidential election, but the pair lost miserably. Since then, he has faded from the political scene.
After Ju left the DPP, he joined the New Party, and later served as a founding chairman of the Social Democratic Party. The party disappeared. He ran for a legislative seat several times, but failed each time.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
Many Chinese spouses required to submit proof of having renounced their Chinese household registration have either completed the process or provided affidavits ahead of the June 30 deadline, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. Of the 12,146 people required to submit the proof, 5,534 had done so as of Wednesday, MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. Another 2,572 people who met conditions for exemption or deferral from submitting proof of deregistration — such as those with serious illnesses or injuries — have submitted affidavits instead, he said. “As long as individuals are willing to cooperate with the legal
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
The Ministry of Environment yesterday held a seminar in Taipei for experts from Taiwan and Japan to exchange their experiences on the designs and development of public toilets. Japan Toilet Association chairman Kohei Yamamoto said that he was impressed with the eco-toilet set up at Daan Forest Park, adding that Japan still faces issues regarding public restrooms despite the progress it made over the past decades. For example, an all-gender toilet was set up in Kabukicho in Tokyo’s Shinjuku District several years ago, but it caused a public backlash and was rebuilt into traditional men’s and women’s toilets, he said. Japan Toilet Association
RSS