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Editorial: When assets become a liability

The biggest difference between the KMT and the DPP is their understanding of democracy. In its five-decade long rule over Taiwan, the KMT never seriously considered the people's concerns while making important policies. The DPP fought its way to power through elections and so knows very well that the voter is the boss.

The Executive Yuan will soon forward a bill to regulate political party assets to the Legislative Yuan. While the proposed legislation will affect all parties, it is clearly aimed at the KMT's ill-gotten gains and so there is sure to be a bruising battle during the legislature's review.

The KMT took over a massive number of assets from the Japanese colonial government. It also confiscated a large number of private assets. For decades it failed to differentiate between its coffers and the government's. This allowed the KMT to become the world's richest political party.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, both the KMT's Lien Chan (連戰) and the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) made the KMT's assets an issue. After losing the election, Lien put part of the party's assets in a trust -- but that ended his interest in dealing with the problem.

Those assets, however, remain a political liability. As long as the KMT holds on to what a majority of the people view as illegally-gotten assets, its political future will be in doubt. The KMT does comprehend this fact, but it is too entrenched in its ways to change. Access to all that money and resources has been the party's lifeline. Giving up the bulk of its assets could be an act of political suicide. Or it could be the cornerstone of the party's revival -- but Lien has proven that he is not the kind of heroic leader who could turn an adversity into an advantage.

Certainly, political considerations are behind DPP's decision to revive the assets issue before the year-end elections. But the proposed bill conforms to the spirit of fairness and justice. It also enjoys wide public support. The opposition camp's attempt to distort the issue into a case of petty party politics is not likely to generate much sympathy.

The KMT has lost the opportunity to take the initiative in handling the assets issue. Now, damage control is about all it can do. Its best option is to donate all its questionable assets to charity before the proposed legislation becomes law. Such a move could help restore the party's image and dignity. Or it could continue to procrastinate, put all of its assets in a trust and wait for the law to take effect and then decide what to do. The worst thing it could do is try to block the bill in the legislature.

But KMT officials are obviously floundering. Trying to divert attention by accusing former party chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) of mishandling the party's assets is a ridiculous attempt to mislead the public. After all, Lee wasn't running the party when the bulk of the assets were added to the KMT's coffers. Like the miserly Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the KMT is not welcomed or respected -- much less happy -- despite all its wealth -- or the wealth of its chairman.

If the KMT fails to tackle the problem head-on, its tombstone might one day soon be engraved with the epitaph worthy of Scrooge before his Christmas Eve rehabilitation: "Here lies a slave to money, good at getting rich through unscrupulous means, and detested by the people."
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