After KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (
Chen's proposal may sound easy, but its implementation entails multiple complications. Anyone who thinks twice will discover that to secure the KMT administration, the interweaving of state and party treasuries went on for a large portion of time during the past 50 years of KMT rule. However, in the past 10 years, the KMT has cleverly and quietly progressed from the era of "party-state capitalism" to an even more complicated operation. Subjecting them to state appropriation is a vastly complex task.
How to thoroughly straighten out the KMT-owned businesses, rather than engage in a "comprehensive audit," is actually an issue more complicated than who to vote for in the presidential election. This is because the project must be carried out in a legal and reasonable manner, without overlooking the reactions of the stock market, impact on the willingness to invest, and the entire Taiwan economy to prevent ill will and resentment. Reform is always more difficult and time-consuming than revolution and the messy ledgers of the KMT during the last 50 years requires an audit by someone of extraordinary patience.
First of all, we need to know just exactly what KMT assets there are and what their value is. We still don't have a very precise figure. Scholar Karl J. Field's research report titled KMT, Inc. published last June said: "In fact, profit is the primary and increasingly important function of KMT, Inc. With total assets valued at US$42 billion, it is undoubtedly the richest party in the world." However, according to a book published Sunday entitled Liquidate the KMT, the KMT's assets are estimated to exceed NT$600 billion and the net value of the party (less liabilities) is nearly NT$200 billion.
Like an octopus, the KMT sucks up and holds a large number of company stocks, especially stocks of those high-technology companies which are deemed as the blood line of Taiwan's economy, including companies not yet publicly traded on the stock market. This complicated relationship not only allows the KMT to control the stock market during each election, but triggers irrational initial reaction in the market to any drastic "auditing" move.
This is why everyone agrees with Lien's proposal to place the KMT assets in a trust, but no consensus can be reached about how the trust should be set up. Any hastily dreamed up ideas in the last 50 days or so before the election won't necessarily be compatible with the country's or the people's interests.
It took Lee Teng-hui (
Besides the enactment of relevant laws such as a trust law and a political party organization law, rumor has it that some conglomerates deeply tied with the KMT are interested in taking over the KMT assets as the "trustees." This makes one wonder whether these enormous assets are simply being moved from the right pocket to the left pocket. For the purpose of obtaining public trust, the process of placing KMT assets in trust must be placed under the watchful eyes of the media, judiciary and financial institutes in accordance with the principles of justice and equality.
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