Taiwan's largest opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) yesterday
decided to seek the recall of?Chen Shui-bian amid a swirl of
corruption scandals embroiling his wife and son-in-law.
Tseng Yung-chuan, director of KMT Central Policy Committee, said
the party's Central Standing Committee had approved a proposal to
call for a "parliamentary" vote to strip Chen of office.
"We can't wait two years to end Taiwan's fear," Tseng said,
referring to the time left in Chen's second and last four-year
term, which ends in 2008. "We must solve it at once."
"(Chen's) honesty has been cast into doubt from a legal
standpoint. He has abused his power and broken the law," he
added.
A referendum to recall Chen would require the support of
two-thirds of Taiwan's 225-seat "parliament" before it can be
presented to the island's voters for approval.
The KMT and its ally, People First Party (PFP), hold 113 seats,
while independents have another 12.
Following the KMT meeting held in Taipei yesterday afternoon,
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou explained why his party had decided to
press forward with the issue.
"For the past week, we have called on Chen to take
responsibility with the least cost to society, and resign
voluntarily," he said.
"But we have found that he put the interests of the party above
those of society."
The KMT leader denied that the proposed recall is a power
struggle between his party and the ruling Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP), saying "it's honesty versus corruption, competence
versus incompetence."
Xu Shiquan, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based National Society
of Taiwan Studies, said the KMT decision to seek the ouster of
scandal-hit Chen reflects the will of the people.
"As a growing number of people support Chen's removal, Ma, who
used to oppose the recall move, came to recognize it was time to
change course and put more pressure on Chen and the DPP," said
he.
The latest Taiwan media survey suggests that 44 percent of local
people want Chen to resign over the scandals, a jump of about 10
percentage points in two weeks.
Xu predicted that the KMT faces an extremely difficult mission
to oust Chen, because of the high threshold for the "parliamentary"
vote as well as the DPP's determination to defend Chen.
"But things may change soon if new developments in the scandal
prove Chen to be a purely negative asset that threatens to drag the
DPP into disaster," the researcher said.
"By then, it cannot be ruled out that some DPP 'lawmakers' may
abandon Chen to either press for his resignation or throw their
weight behind the opposition."
Chen has come under growing opposition pressure to resign after
his son-in-law Chao Chien-ming was detained last month on suspicion
of insider share trading.
(China Daily June 8, 2006)