DPP leaders oppose Pres. Ma’s pro-Beijing policy

Chen arrived shortly before noon to sign four agreements with Chiang, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation.

DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen demanded that the Chiang-Chen meeting, which is scheduled to start today, be open and transparent.

“The entire process should be made public,” Tsai urged.

Oversight by parliament and the general public is necessary over the meeting, where the four agreements on direct flights, mail service, direct shipping and food safety will be inked, Tsai stressed.

Moreover, Tsai said, “any and all agreement signed shall be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for ratification.”

Should any of the agreements touch on the sovereignty of the country, Tsai said, it should be put on a national referendum.

“It should be up to the people to decide,” she added.

Three DPP lawmakers fought against President Ma Ying-jeou’s decision to accredit diplomas issued in China.

“Any such accreditation,” DPP legislator Tien Chiu-chin charged a Legislative Yuan education committee meeting, “is a black box operation.”

It is a secret operation to turn Taiwan into another Hong Kong, said another DPP lawmaker, Chen Chieh-ju. The former British crown colony was reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

The lady lawmakers threatened to boycott the annual budget of the Ministry of Education for next year unless Cheng Jei-cheng makes a comprehensive report.

Cheng is minister of education.

Wang Tuo, DPP secretary-general, told the official Central News Agency he lodged a protest with Chan Chun-po, secretary-general to President Ma, about the government discrimination against his party in obtaining permission for protest rallies.

“Those places where we requested to hold rallies were purposely awarded the Kuomintang,” Wang complained. “That’s unconstitutional,” he said.

He threatened to hold rallies in places where the Kuomintang was allowed to assemble but no assembly took place.

“On the other hand,” Wang said, “we are appealing the police decision not to give us the right of assembly.”

Chen Ming-tung, former chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, said the DPP does not oppose the Chiang-Chen meeting per se.

“As a matter of fact,” the ex-MAC chief said, “its agenda is almost exactly as the one I had proposed.”

But there is one fundamental difference, Chen Ming-tung said. “It’s about the sovereignty of the country,” he added.

“We did not accept the consensus of 1992, but the MAC now has,” Chen Ming-tung pointed out. Under that tacit agreement, both Beijing and Taipei acknowledge there is one China, whose connotation may be individually and orally expressed.

The DPP equates the acceptance of the consensus of 1992 with Taiwan’s total surrender to the People’s Republic of China.

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