Following rare criticism from Beijing, Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou has
defended his support for the Falun Gong spiritual movement in its fight
for
legitimacy on the mainland.
Mr Ma said there “can’t be any hope” for cross-strait reunification
unless
Beijing changed its attitude on the outlawed sect.
The popular Kuomintang mayor said that other contentious subjects,
especially rehabilitation of the 1989 democracy movement, also needed to
be
resolved before Taiwan could seriously consider the prospect of
reunification. The former justice minister, who was re-elected by a wide
margin in mayoral elections last month, made the remarks in an interview
yesterday with the South China Morning Post.
Mr Ma is seen by many pundits as the Kuomintang’s brightest hope for
challenging Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic
Progressive
Party in next year’s presidential election.
While Mr Ma has denied harbouring ambitions to run in next year’s
presidential race, his appearance at a Taipei gathering of Falun Gong
followers last month was interpreted by Taiwan’s media as a show of
support
for democracy forces on the mainland.
Mr Ma said he was not surprised when Xinhua published an editorial
accusing
“a certain Taiwan politician” of “harming healthy development of
cross-strait relations” by advocating tolerance for the sect. The
editorial
was Beijing’s first swipe at Mr Ma after years of relatively positive
coverage in the state -controlled press.
“Here in Taiwan, we haven’t seen any signs of the Falun Gong being
vicious…
,” Mr Ma said. “As long as they operate within the bounds of the
law,
not bothering other people or harming the public interest, they are not
a
threat to us at all.”
While some did not view Falun Gong as a religion, “they still should
enjoy
the right of assembly as part of a free society”, he said. Mr Ma said
governments would be better off leaving such groups alone.
“Religious repression really isn’t a part of traditional Chinese
culture,
and as the inheritors of Chinese culture, the mainland really should be
more
tolerant,” he said. During his re-election campaign, Mr Ma had faced
criticism from Mr Chen, who accused him of having “Hong Kong feet” and
wanting to take Taiwan “down Hong Kong’s road”.
The mayor, whose mainland family brought him to Hong Kong after the
civil
war, came under fire for visiting Hong Kong twice, leading Mr Chen to
call
him the “chief executive of the Taipei special administrative region”.
But yesterday, Mr Ma said the Taiwan president’s anger would not deter
him
from visiting Hong Kong again.
“The president was criticising me because he wanted to affect voters in
the
election,” Mr Ma said. “But the remarks generated a backlash among the
citizens of Taipei. Many people thought it was inappropriate for the
president to say those sorts of things. There’s no need to demonise Hong
Kong.
Posting date: 16/Jan/2003
Original article date: 15/Jan/2003
Category: Media Reports
