Taiwan needs another 8 years, to deepen democracy :President

Taipei, May 21 (UNI) Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has renewed a call to write a new constitution for Taiwan and reaffirmed his commitment to amend the Referendum Law to materialize the ideals of popular sovereignty while stressing that Taiwan needs eight more years to deepen its democratic system.

Mr Chen made the remarks in a speech delivered Sunday at the conclusion of a forum on Taiwan's transition of power, organized by Ketagalan Institute, a school founded by Chen to nurture a new generation of leaders in public services, to mark the seventh anniversary of his presidential inauguration.

In his address, Mr Chen reviewed developments in the past seven years and outlined his priority agenda for the coming year. The President the presidency May 20, 2000, ending the Kuomintang's (KMT's) 55-year grip on power.

While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has achieved much in its first two terms, he said the divisive pressures stemming from national identity remain unsolved.

''Many of our country's problems lie in the polarization of national identification, which could be attributed to the longstanding authoritarian rule and the illusory 'Greater China' ideology that prevailed during the KMT administration, ''Chen explained.

In contrast, he said, the DPP administration has insisted on going down the road of democracy and the road of Taiwan.

''It's a bumpy road, but as a young democracy, we are not doing too bad. Generally speaking, peace, democracy, Taiwan identity, balanced development and cultural diversity are the most obvious results we have achieved over the past seven years,'' Mr Chen said.

While the DPP will have been in power for eight years as of next May, he said Taiwan needs at least eight more years to consolidate its democracy.

''There is still much room for improvement. My two four-year terms are definitely not sufficient. We need another eight years to further deepen our democracy,'' he added.

Touting the achievements made over the past seven years, Mr Chen said he was glad that he has managed to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, cement the country's democratic system, reinforce Taiwan-centric consciousness and narrow gaps in north-south and urban-rural developments.

On the establishment of a diverse industrial structure, he said Taiwan now has three flourishing science-based industrial parks -- the Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan, the Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung and the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan reports central news agency of Taiwan (CNA).

In addition, Mr Chen said, Taiwan now has two ''trillion dollar industries'' -- semiconductors and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels. The LCD-panel industry, in particular, developed from scratch with the DPP administration's assistance, he Chen said, adding that local LCD-panel makers now command an over-40 percent share of the global market.

On the issue of cross-strait peace, Mr Chen said opposition parties had claimed in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election that a war would break out if he were elected president, but that nothing as serious as the 1996 missile crisis happened over the past seven years.

On deepening Taiwan's young democracy, the President Chen said his administration has completed the task of nationalizing the armed forces in a short period of time and that the Referendum Law of 2003 has materialized the goal of direct democracy.

In the remaining year of his presidency, Mr Chen said he will push for amendments of the Referendum Law to lower legal thresholds for the holding of referendums on issues of national concern. And hastening the birth of a new constitution that is timely, viable and relevant to Taiwan is his another goal in this regard, he added.

UNI