By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called for voters’ support in Los Angeles yesterday, saying her leadership, readiness to govern and her “Taiwan consensus” initiative would pave the way for Taiwan to overcome future challenges.
The presidential candidate listed three reasons to vote for her in the January presidential election and three reasons why President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should not be re-elected in her speech to more than 3,000 supporters at Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, the last of six cities on her 10-day US visit.
Beaming with confidence, Tsai said she has in the past three years successfully transformed the DPP into a mature, rational and policy-oriented political party that stresses governance and sustainability.
In addition, she said, the DPP is ready to help Taiwan make fundamental changes to meet future challenges with its ambitious 10-year policy guidelines, a set of policies that aim to improve Taiwan’s competitiveness, social welfare, environmental sustainability and robust national defense, among others.
The Taiwan consensus initiative, which emphasizes a transparent, public and democratic process to include opinions from all sides, will consolidate -Taiwanese to face the enormous challenge of a rising China, Tsai said.
Ma’s failed leadership is one of three reasons why voters should withdraw support for the Chinese National Party (KMT), Tsai said, adding that people have suffered over the past three years as the Ma administration has provided nothing but political maneuvering and exaggeration of Ma’s so-called accomplishments.
The KMT president has offered no plans or vision for Taiwan’s future and has sided with corporations in every policy decision, she said.
Ma’s “golden decade” pledge is an empty promise, which reflects his misjudgement of a turbulent decade ahead, Tsai told supporters.
She also criticized Ma’s “three noes” policy — no unification, no independence and no use of force — saying that the “no unification and no independence” part is “basically an agreement between the KMT and China,” while “no use of force” was Ma’s own invention.
“I don’t understand how Taiwan can be not independent and not unified [with China] at the same time,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
The DPP chairperson is scheduled to arrive home tonight. She leaves for a three-day trip to Japan on Oct. 3.