Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who is leading a campaign to depose the president, yesterday described the DPP as worse than the Chinese Communist Party or the authoritarian-era Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
"I thought only the vicious Chinese Communist Party was good at smear campaigns, little did I expect the DPP would do the same," he said. "The way they attack me is much more virulent than how the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treated me during the authoritarian era. Even if the DPP vilifies me, it does not make President Chen [Shui-bian (陳水扁)] look better."
Shih also responded to a remark he said was made by Chen, in which the president said that Shih and other senior party heavyweights resented Chen because he was so young when he was elected, and therefore blocked their presidential bids.
"As a national leader, the president should be open-minded and tolerant," Shih said. "The more he speaks, the more he fuels the anti-Chen campaign."
Shih made the remark yesterday afternoon in response to a comment Chen is supposed to have made during a meeting with party employees and supporters in Ilan County yesterday morning.
DPP Legislator Chen Chin-de (
Shih also said that DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun accused Shih of trting to seek a post in Chen's Cabinet in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election.
Shih produced what he described as the minutes of a meeting on March 4, 2000, between him, Chen, then-DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
Shih said that Yu was not in a position to make the allegation, because he was not at the meeting.
Shih said that Chen had asked if he was interested in becoming party chairman, legislative speaker or head of the Straits Exchange Foundation, but Shih said he declined the offer.
However, Yu yesterday said that the press had misquoted remarks he made about Shih when he spoke to reporters at a luncheon on Tuesday.
"Still, what I said during the luncheon represents the facts as I understand them. I did not reveal any specific information intentionally," Yu said, saying that Shih had met with Chen at least nine times around 2000.
"Only Shih knows exactly what he talked about with the president," Yu said.
Shih also said that Yu had raised suspicions that China was playing a part in Shih's campaign, but he dismissed the speculation as "dirty."
"Many people know how much I abhor China," he said. "I have refused to visit Hong Kong since 1997 and Macao since 1999. I will continue to do so until China agrees to abandon the use of military means to resolve cross-strait disputes."
Shih said it was a shame that the party had made "dirty" accusations about his campaign, because he knew "many DPP members" had formed groups to visit brothels in China.
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