Tue, Sep 11, 2007 page3

• Chen touts independence campaign

  TAIWAN FOR UN Calling on the public to have faith in themselves, President Chen Shui-bian rejected claims that the UN referendum proposal was merely symbolic

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday encouraged the public to persist along the road to democracy and make Taiwan a new and independent nation.

  "As long as we insist on going the right way and doing the right thing, we will eventually reach our goal," Chen said.

  "Taiwan will be correctly named, Taiwan will have a new constitution, Taiwan will join the United Nations and Taiwan will become a new and independent, normal country," he said.

  The president made the remarks while addressing the annual meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations in Osaka, Japan, via a video conference yesterday morning.

  Rejecting claims that the UN referedum is only symbolic in nature, Chen, speaking in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), said that Taiwanese have the absolute right to decide the nation's future.

  "Taiwan's `status quo' is that Taiwan is not part of the People's Republic of China," Chen said. "Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state and its sovereignty belongs to the 23 million people of Taiwan."

  It conforms to the common interest of Taiwan, Japan, the US and most countries in the Asia-Pacific region to prevent the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait from being changed, Chen said.

  He said that many difficulties and challenges lie ahead, but the biggest challenge comes from within. He said that the public must have faith in themselves and in the nation.

  Chen said he has been under enormous pressure since he first declared that "there is one country on either side of the Taiwan Strait" in August 2002, but he has never backed down because it is a historic truth.

  He said he was glad that the Referendum Law (公投法) was enacted in 2003, allowing the nation to hold its first national referendum in 2004 and the right to hold referendums was enshrined in the Constitution in 2005.

  Chen said he was happy to inform the federation that the nation would hold its second national referendum next year.

  He was referring to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposal to hold a referendum on joining the UN under the name Taiwan in conjunction with the presidential election in March. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has suggested another referendum on "re-entering" the international body.

  Chen said that he welcomed and appreciated the KMT's change of heart -- from opposing and boycotting referendums to supporting and initiating them.

  "It only indicates that not a single person or political party has the power to stop democratic development," he said.

  "You cannot put the people in a bird cage or draw a red line for democracy," he said.

  Another referendum, proposed by the DPP on reclaiming the KMT's improperly acquired assets, also passed the second hurdle and will be put before the people on Jan. 12 concurrently with the legislative elections, he said.

  In related news, a group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday called a press conference condemning the Cabinet for using public funds to advertise the referendum on joining the UN using the name "Taiwan."

  "Why didn't the Executive Yuan help the KMT run an advertisement of its UN referendum proposal calling for the country's return to the UN under the name `Republic of China'?" KMT legislative caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said.

  The government had asked public agencies to put up banners and flags bearing the words: "UN for Taiwan, Peace forever," designed to promote the nation's bid to join the UN under the name of Taiwan, to boost the campaign.

  KMT lawmakers claimed the cost of producing banners and flags were covered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, its Water Resource Agency, state-owned Taiwan Power Company and state-owned China Steel Corp.

  In response, Hsu Li-hui (許麗慧), an official with the Government Information Office (GIO), dismissed the allegation, saying that the funding was from the GIO's annual budget, and it was earmarked to disseminate government policy in the first place.

  Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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