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Thousands demand Taiwan president's ouster
2006-06-03
TAIPEI - Thousands of people rallied in the capital of Taiwan on Saturday, joining an opposition call to demand President Chen Shui-bian's resignation over an insider trading scandal involving his son-in-law. Shouting "Ah-bian step down", they gathered near the presidential office in central Taipei as riot police with baton and shields kept watch behind barbed-wire barricades set up to keep protesters at bay. Chen, whose nick-name is Ah bian, has faced growing pressure to step down after his son-in-law was detained last month on suspicion of using insider information to buy shares of Taiwan Development Corp. from a partly state-owned bank. "Probe graft to the very end", said placards carried by the demonstrators. Chen, whose approval rating has sunk to new lows, and his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, have apologised. And Chao, who has been detained, has denied any wrongdoing. The president has agreed to yield some powers to Premier Su Tseng-chang and approved the resignations of his closest aides in an apparent attempt to deflect pressure from both supporters and opponents to step down. But Chen's moves were too late for the People First Party, Taiwan's second-biggest opposition party, which organised the protest. Analysts said the struggling party was seeking to seize the initiative after Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the main opposition Nationalist Party, angered supporters by opposing calls for Chen to be recalled in a parliamentary vote. NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE Ma called on Saturday for a no-confidence vote in parliament against the cabinet because the opposition lacks the two-thirds parliamentary majority for a recall motion to pass. Under Taiwan's constitution, a no-confidence vote against the cabinet, if passed, would force Chen to either choose a new premier or dissolve parliament and call snap elections. The Nationalists have a razor-thin parliamentary majority and have eyed the premiership since Chen won the 2000 presidential elections ending more than five decades of one-party rule. Chen won re-election in 2004 and is barred by the constitution from running for a third four-year term. "All who are unhappy with the Democratic Progressive Party's corruption must stand forward and loudly tell the president: please resign and step down!" said Ma, who plans to run for president in 2008. "This is not conducive at all to social stability and could turn into a power struggle," the state-funded Central News Agency quoted presidential office spokesman David Lee as saying. Yu Shyi-kun, chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the protest exposed the growing divisions in the opposition camp. Even former president Lee Teng-hui, a political ally of Chen, has suggested the president should consider stepping down. "The leader must be changed if he commits a mistake. 'The son of Taiwan' is not just one person," Lee said referring to Chen's self-professed nickname. "Sons of Taiwan are everywhere. Everyone here are sons of Taiwan," he added. (Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim)
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