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Strategies & Market Trends : HONG KONG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Tsang who wrote (2908)	11/1/2000 1:16:14 AM
From: Rolla Coasta	Respond to of 2951

I really wish James Soong could become the Prez of Taiwan someday. Then we really have peace across the strait: dailynews.yahoo.com Taiwan Opposition Pushes to Oust President By Alice Hung TAIPEI (Reuters) - An opposition drive to oust Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian gathered steam on Tuesday with opponents ignoring attempts to defuse his biggest crisis since taking office in May. The three major opposition parties, which far outnumber Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in parliament, said they had collected enough signatures from legislators for a motion to dismiss him. Analysts said the opposition parties stood a good chance of succeeding with the dismissal bid because they hold an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament. But they said the vote would still be close and questioned whether the coalition-leading Nationalist Party had the guts to face the tough political battle ahead. An opposition coalition comprising the Nationalist Party, the People First Party and the New Party said on Tuesday it had gathered more than a quarter of the signatures needed to force a vote of dismissal in parliament. ``Timing to file the motion is very important for us. We must take the popular view into account,'' Nationalist legislator Ting Shou-chung, who initiated the motion, told Reuters. Taiwan's DPP is considered the ruling party even though it does not hold a majority in parliament because the president runs the country and appoints the premier. Chen's office declined to comment on the opposition campaign. Under Taiwan's constitution, dismissal of a president requires a motion from a quarter of legislators and needs support from two-thirds for passage. If the dismissal is approved by lawmakers, a popular referendum is held, which must have turnout equal to at least half of the March 18 presidential election turnout. New elections are held if more than half the voters approve the dismissal. The Nationalists, who hold 115 seats, are now in the opposition after dominating the island's politics for 55 years until the last election in March. The People First Party holds 17 seats, the New Party nine. The remainder belong to independents. Chen's minority DPP holds just 68 seats. The opposition coalition needs to bring additional six to seven votes to pass the two-thirds threshold, analysts said. Premier Snubbed In another bid to embarrass Chen's government, opposition legislators forced Premier Chang Chun-hsiung of the ruling DPP to leave the parliament building by voting to cancel a scheduled question-and-answer session that Chang is expected to attend. Taiwan's political crisis, which has sent stocks tumbling and weakened the local dollar, began on Friday when the government decided to halt the building of a controversial nuclear power plant, a darling project of the Nationalists. On Tuesday, Taiwan's main index ended down 2.03 percent, while the Taiwan dollar had fallen to T$32.376 by early afternoon from Monday's T$32.358 close. The plant cancellation angered the opposition, and was a slap in the face of Nationalist chairman Lien Chan, coming just 30 minutes after a fence-mending meeting between Chen and Lien. An unlikely alliance of the Nationalists, the People First Party and New Party -- whose three party leaders had not spoken since the election -- was formed on Monday. ``The nuclear controversy united opposition parties which would not normally have joined hands,'' said Joseph Wu, a political watcher at the National Chengchi University. Chen on Monday met the heads of four branches of government -- executive, judicial, examination and Taiwan's top government watchdog -- to try to defuse the political turmoil. He told the branch heads he respected the cabinet's decision to suspend work on the $5.5 billion nuclear power plant, the country's fourth, but stopped short of backing it. The opposition has ignored the efforts at reconciliation as feeble and pushed ahead with the signature gathering. Analysts said the threat to topple the DPP was real, but the Nationalists, whose slumping popularity was revealed in the March polls, also have much to lose. ``It depends on whether the Nationalist Party is prepared to face the consequences of the dismissal. If a new election is held, the Nationalists will not necessarily benefit,'' Wu said. The opposition has also called for Chen's impeachment, but the process is complex and success unlikely, analysts said. A no-confidence vote against Premier Chang also looked unlikely because its passage would give the president authority to dissolve parliament.