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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Chen Shui-bian declines banquet invitation
Various performance groups using huge balloons yesterday rehearse for the presidential inauguration ceremony that is due to take place tomorrow in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
The office of former president Chen Shui-bian （陳水扁） yesterday announced that Chen would not be attending president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） state banquet tomorrow due to concern that his attendance would create controversy.
The office released a statement yesterday affirming that an invitation to the state banquet was sent to Chen on May 20 by the Presidential Office and that it was signed by Tsai.
“The office wishes to express its gratitude, regardless of whether the invitation was sent due to Presidential Office convention or out of respect for former presidents,” the office said.
The statement said that the former president’s medical team said that attending the banquet would help Chen to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. Overcoming the disorder is not limited to pharmaceutical, physical or rehabilitatory treatment, but also behavioural treatment, such as improving Chen’s social adaptation, community interactions and re-establishing social networks, which all help alleviate the symptoms and prevent the disorder from worsening.
“The office therefore calls on the Ministry of Justice to respect the medical expertise [of the team] and their professional suggestions,” the office said. “While we are grateful for President Tsai’s invitation, [former] president Chen and his wife are afraid that their attendance, if manipulated, would distract [media and public attention] from the event’s original purpose and thus ruin Tsai’s good intentions.”
“[The couple] has decided not to attend the banquet, but [former] president Chen gives his full support and his blessing to Tsai’s inauguration and calls on all Taiwanese to stand in solidarity in their support of the new government,” the statement said.
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai （蔡正元） yesterday accused the incoming administration of “lying when it said that it was the incumbent administration who sent the invitation to Chen and insinuated that it had nothing to do with Tsai Ing-wen.”
He then quoted Roman historian Publius Gornelius Tacitus’ “Tacitus trap,” who said that “neither good nor bad policies please the public if they resent their government.”
However, the origin of the so-called “Tacitus trap” was questioned online, with many netizens saying that the source could be the Chinese government, as it has made frequent appearances in Chinese media.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
