Taipei - Taiwan's former president Lee Teng-hui Friday
warned of the consequence of the failure of two referendums initiated
by both ruling and opposition parties on the island's bid to gain
accession to the United Nations.
'If both referendums fail, it would create the impression that
Taiwan people do not want to join the United Nations and this would
seriously harm Taiwan,' Lee told reporters in Taiwan.
He called on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the
opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), to find way to
resolve the issue.
DPP has initiated a referendum on the island joining the United
Nations under Taiwan title, while the KMT has initiated another one
on using any title to seek to return to the global body, which ousted
Taipei to admit Beijing in 1971.
Both referendums will be held alongside the presidential election
on March 22, but the chance of their success was slim due mainly to
the requirements that at least half of the 18 million eligible voters
must go to vote and that more than 50 per cent of the voters cast the
yes ballots.
As it is almost impossible for either the KMT and the DPP to
separately rally more than 9 million voters to vote for their
respective referendums, there is little chance either vote would
pass.
Lee said the two camps must hold political negotiation and
cooperate with each other to find a solution to the problem. 'It
would be best for the two camps to defer the holding of the
referendums to allow them to have more time to deal with the
problem,' he said.
The United States, an informal ally and biggest arms supplier for
Taiwan, has strongly opposed the DPP's referendum, believing it would
intensify cross-strait tension on the grounds that the use of the
island's unofficial Taiwan title rather than its official Republic of
China title to join the world body is tantamount to changing the
island's status.
China, a rival of Taiwan since the two sides split at the end of a
civil war in 1949, has regarded the planned referendum as the first
step towards declaring independence, a move it has repeated said
would lead to a cross-strait war.
USA
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