Thu, Dec 28, 2023 page2

• Legislators should vote on premier, Ko says

  FIGHTING WORDS: The TPP’s presidential candidate accused most KMT officials of having been bought off by China, and said the DPP was promoting desinicization

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  If elected, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) would form a coalition government, and might even ask former presidents to recommend candidates for the position of premier, who lawmakers could then choose from, he said in an interview published on Tuesday,

  The government is run like a “dictatorship presidential system” or an “elected emperor system,” Ko said in an exclusive interview with Mirror Media magazine.

  He said if he is elected, he would establish constitutional conventions so the president would be required to report and answer questions at the Legislative Yuan, appoint a premier with consent from the legislature, and freeze the budgets of the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan to balance and separate executive, legislative and judicial powers.

  

  Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je high-fives a supporter at a campaign event in Hsinchu on Saturday.

  Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters

  Ko said he would form a coalition government, enabling political parties to “become shareholders.”

  For example, former presidents would each be asked to nominate two candidates for the position of premier, who lawmakers would vote on, he said.

  Asked why he would make the best president, Ko said that only he can deal with China and the US, and the pan-blue and the pan-green camps at the same time.

  He said if the presidential candidates were classified as “preferable, acceptable, tolerable and intolerable,” then only he would be considered “acceptable” by China and the US, while the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), would be considered “intolerable” by China, and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), would be “preferable” to China, but the US might give him a “question mark.”

  Ko also asked if Hou is being a responsible mayor, as he took leave from his post only a month after being re-elected for a second term.

  He said that the TPP is different from the KMT in that “aside from a few, KMT officials have been bought off by China.”

  Although Hou said that he is against China’s “one country, two systems” policy, he embraces the so-called “1992 consensus,” and that when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) talks of the “1992 consensus” Taiwan formula, it means there might be “one country, three systems,” Ko said.

  He said as long as Taiwan maintains its current democracy, freedom, political system and lifestyle, he is willing to communicate with China.

  The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

  Ko said Lai would not be a suitable president, as the risk of war would be heightened and the economy would worsen, as about 40 percent of Taiwan’s exports go to China and it would be difficult to suddenly change this.

  The DPP would fail in communicating with China because it promotes “desinicization,” he said.
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