NEW HOPE:The former president praised the public for facing hardships with courage and called for cooperation between political leaders and parties
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) offered encouraging messages for the new year, saying the Year of the Snake would be a better year.
DPP headquarters and the offices of Lee and Tsai released pre-recorded video messages on the video-sharing Web site YouTube ahead of the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, which begins today.
“The past year has been a challenging year, with people suffering from the impact of a sluggish economy. Most respondents in an opinion poll also expressed their dissatisfaction with their livelihood,” the 90-year-old Lee said.
Lee praised Taiwanese for “facing hardships with their trademark courage and toughness every day.”
And to politicians, he said: “The leader of a country should be humble and willing to listen to the public’s voice, and political parties should understand how to compete and cooperate at the same time.”
“Those who enjoy better lives should be considerate of the plight of the financially challenged,” Lee added.
Throughout the hundreds of years of Taiwanese history, “our ancestors never gave in” although they suffered numerous hardships, he said.
“The country will not move forward unless we keep working together with confidence and determination,” Lee said.
Tsai did not speak in the two-minute video, opting to let the content speak for itself.
The video, titled Lighting up Taiwan with action, documented Tsai’s visits to various communities, businesses, schools and Aboriginal tribes since her loss in the presidential election in January last year.
With the simple message, Tsai urged people to take action and make changes by helping those in need.
Tsai, who had spent most of her time doing charity works last year, advised Taiwanese to have “tender hearts like the Moon and take actions that can light up people like the Sun.”
In a 30-second video, Su said he hoped the new year would be a better year for Taiwanese