TAIPEI - Taiwan's political turmoil is
escalating, with opponents of the island's
embattled President Chen Shui-bian and his ruling
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pledging to
step up efforts to force him to step down.
Breaking a silence of weeks, Chen on
Tuesday launched a counterattack against a
campaign to have him impeached, spearheaded by two
major opposition parties - the Kuomintang (KMT)
and the People First Party (PFP) - which together
hold a narrow majority of seats in the Legislative
Yuan, or parliament.
Chen delivered a two-hour speech
broadcast live on television in which
he attempted to refute one-by-one "10
charges" lodged by
KMT and PFP legislators
as justification to impeach him.
The
charges include corruption (involving his families
and aides), cronyism, incapability of running
Taiwan's economy, failure in
expanding diplomatic ties,
and violation of the constitution (by leading the
island toward independence).
Under the
constitution, Chen could have made his
self-defense in parliament next Tuesday, when
legislators will vote on the impeachment motion.
But Chen said he preferred to make his explanation
to all 23 million Taiwanese people to let them
make their own decision. But he added that by
doing so he was not holding parliament in
contempt.
Chen spoke in the Taiwanese
dialect (south Fujian) for most of his speech in
an attempt to solicit support, analysts said. But
this tactic might backfire and arouse further
attacks from the opposition, as Mandarin remains
the island's official language.
Taiwan's
stock market dropped more than 3% on Tuesday,
before Chen delivered his speech, as investors
feared that the president might made some strongly
worded statements to provoke mainland China and
heighten tensions across the strait.
However, Chen focused on counterattacking
the opposition parties' charges against him.
Analysts said this suggested that in his remaining
two years in office, Chen could no longer rely on
manipulating cross-strait ties, as he has done
before, to divert public attention from domestic
problems. Thus cross-strait relations should
remain relatively stable.
After Chen
finished his speech, the opposition immediately
dismissed it as "nonsense" and vowed to take a
more aggressive approach to get him out of office.
"It was full of lies," said KMT legislator Joanna
Lei.
Even some legislators from Chen's DPP
criticized his performance. "We have seen a show
of an eloquent lawyer. President Chen focused too
much on defending himself but failed to appear
humble. Such an attitude hurt his supporters and
provoked the opposition followers simultaneously,"
said the party's Lee Wen-chung.
"What the
public really wants to hear is his [Chen's]
answers to all of the speculative reports about
the [corrupt] deeds of the first family," he
added.
Chen did apologize to the public
for the wrongdoings of his son-in-law, Chao
Chien-min, who is being detained over alleged
involvement in an insider-trading case. But he
squarely denied that his wife had ever been
involved in any corrupt deeds, as reported in the
media.
Chen also cited corruption cases
involving KMT officials when they ruled the island
from 1949 to 2000.
Chen finally tried to
appeal to public support by saying he was ready to
sacrifice himself to ease the public's anger, and
the opposition parties could go ahead "and pull
the trigger".
The opposition parties
initiated the impeachment bill in parliament on
June 13, after a series of scandals allegedly
involving Chen's family and aides.
Determining to bring Chen down, PFP
chairman James Soong started a planned four-day
sit-in demonstration outside the legislature on
Wednesday. Soong, who plans to run as Taipei mayor
at the end of the year, vowed to hold a
no-confidence vote to remove the president and the
cabinet should the opposition fail to have Chen
impeached.
However, some in the opposition
fear that Chen will respond by dismissing
parliament and calling for new elections. "Party
headquarters should explain to us why we want to
hold a no-confidence vote [to remove the cabinet],
and what they plan to do if there is a dismissal"
of parliament, said KMT legislator Hsu Shu-po.
According to the DPP's evaluation,
divisions in the opposition parties might lead to
an end of the current political stalemate within a
month or so.
This might yet prove to be
wishful thinking. Chen's troubles are unlikely to
go away that easily or quickly.
Ting-I Tsai is a Taipei-based
freelance writer.
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