President Chen Shui-bian on his visit to Kiribati invited journalists including those from Taiwan for a chat over tea at 5:00 pm (May 3, 1:00 pm in Taiwan).
Before the Q&A period, President Chen said:
Today, May 3, is a very special day. It is World Press Freedom Day. One American Freedom scholar did a study on the level of press freedom in 194 countries. Taiwan was ranked 44th place, six places higher than the previous year and could stand along with European and American countries. Ours is a country with a totally free press. The report strongly confirmed that everyone in Taiwan, including myself, works hard for press freedom and that we have a truly democratic country. But we are not satisfied. We know that there is much room for improvement. We hope that every year, we move further up the ranking.
When I left my country on May 1 to strengthen our diplomatic relations, Mr. Wang Chien-ming (Wang Jianmin), a famous Taiwan baseball pitcher, has honored his country by being drafted into the U.S. Professional Baseball Association. His coach praised him for an excellent performance during a game and said that among young pitchers over the past ten years, Mr. Wang shows great potential. I believe that our countrymen are equally proud of him. Now if we take the party in power as a baseball pitcher, the opposition parties as the infielder and outfielder, I could be a strong back-up pitcher. When we go out to strengthen our diplomatic relations, we should do so as a single country, not as divided political parties. Domestically, there may be different voices of contention, much criticism and ranting. But for the sake of national and diplomatic integrity, there should not be any division between the party in power and the opposition, nor any personal prejudices. For example, everyone knows that Senior Advisor to the President Mr. Koo Kwang-ming disagrees with this administration on many issues. But this time, he came with us to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He has told everyone that in going abroad to boost diplomatic relations, one should only consider the best interests of the country. On foreign soil, he would not criticize the government. We see in him the model of a senior statesman who deserves our esteem. I am deeply grateful.
Yesterday, we rode a sailboat. It was a very exciting experience. We all met Marshall Islands President Note. He is an excellent ship captain and helmsman. But we saw that unfurling the sails needed the help of many other crewmen. Without them, the ship captain could not use the winds and the waves to steer the ship forward and bring it back safely to port. I myself had to help and had to heed the captain's every command. He tells us to stand over there, sit here. We had no personal viewpoints nor could we have personal choices. This was because it would have been risky if we had not positioned ourselves in a way that balanced the boat. From that experience, we could see that the whole national system is a political mechanism. While everyone may have their own opinions, we hope that under the leadership of the president, the captain of the ship, we could all strive for the maximum benefit of the country. I want to tell everyone that I am greatly moved by this visit and feel that I have gained a lot. I hope you would likewise feel optimistic.
The last thing I would like to say is that if anyone in these friendly countries were to ask A-bian if he had any concerns. I would say, of course, I do! But certainly, those concerns do not include the visits to China of the two chairmen of the opposition parties. Everything is under control. What is there to worry about? What I am concerned about is the May 14 National Assembly elections because many people may have forgotten the historical significance of that date. I hope that everybody re-writes history. May 14 is a turning point. If we neglect its significance and allow ourselves to be swept and dispersed by Mainland China fever, our political freedom, our profound and solid democracy would be hacked to pieces. This is what A-bian is most worried about. You remember that over three years ago, in 2001, all political parties signed an agreement to push for legislative reform. That time, everybody supported the idea of decreasing by half the number of legislative seats. But three years have passed and last August 23rd in a show of political unity, the different parties agreed to a constitutional reform besides the decrease in the number of legislative seats, to two electoral votes per district. We all hoped that after holding a national referendum, we could abolish the National Assembly. Everyone thought that the attitude of holding on to the ideals of political reform, to legislative and government reform would not change.
It was with difficulty that we reached the consensus on August 23rd and probably because of last year's legislative election that we did not dare delay or go against the will of the people. We wanted to genuinely make a major choice for the nation and hold a national referendum. But some parties expressed regret at the decision to go ahead with the vote. If they regretted their decision after the vote, I would say that we do not want to see a kind of betrayal disguised as encouragement among political parties. If they get their way, it will be a terrible tragedy to our democratic and legislative form of government. Furthermore, we all must realize that to normalize our check and balance process, we can not have persons adopting extremist attitudes and we hope for a rational means of going about government processes. To upgrade this process in the Legislative Yuan, promotion and final implementation of the single-member district, two-vote system is key. It worked for the United States and Japan too: Can not Taiwan do the same?
We can not just keep thinking about what's best for our parties. We've got to take the reform of Taiwan's legislative body into consideration. Democratic reform is in its infancy--we all know this. The National Assembly has virtually become powerless to the extent of being sidelined, but it still exists. The past performance of the National Assembly has been painfully embarrassing. We want to abolish it, so, why give up half way through? Of course, in doing so, we should just give the power directly to the people. The People are at the top and we must trust their judgment. Direct democracy is always more democratic than representative democracy, so we choose to use a referendum to amend the Constitution, not to just let the legislature decide or political parties behind closed doors decide. The final decision lies with the 23 million people of Taiwan.
In the past, holding a constitutional referendum had been considered tantamount to putting a burning match to fuel. We crossed a treacherous path to be able to hold the March 20 peace referendum, but we were rewarded later with a mutual feeling of self-satisfaction and pride. The basic right for citizens to vote has taken root in Taiwan and it may become a part of everyone's daily life. We have a Referendum Law and we have held our first peaceful referendum, and we may next hold a referendum to amend the Constitution--an extremely solid symbol and demonstration of the 23 million people of Taiwan taking command of their lives, of which we can not allow ourselves to demonstrate failure.
If on May 14 we do not cast our ballots, if can not solidly implement the above-mentioned directions for the National Assembly, then we won't be able to move three years. We will have to wait until after 2008 and may even have to then work toward cross-party consensus to the extent of having a over a three-quarters majority--a task that is truly difficult. So I say to all the citizens that it is imperative to get out and vote and vote on behalf of constitutional reform and in support of the party that totally supported passing of the August 23rd constitutional reforms.
A-bian would like to remind everyone of these points. Thank you all very much.