Speaking in his capacity as KMT chairman, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday that the party would not be actually giving up its assets when it puts them into trust, so party workers and employees of party-run businesses should not worry about their futures.
Speaking at the KMT's central standing committee meeting, Lee said the reason for the plan to entrust the assets is to avoid directly managing party-run commercial businesses. The goal is to prevent possible conflict of interest when the KMT is running the government and implementing economic and financial policies at the same time.
"But by putting the assets into trust, the party is not giving them up. There is nothing wrong with party assets," Lee said. "Our intention is to use our assets in a reasonable way, so that the public won't question us."
"Therefore, our assets will be there to offer [job and retirement] security to employees of both the party and party-run businesses," Lee said. "They don't have to worry."
Lee appeared to be trying to calm party employees who reportedly began worrying about their jobs and pensions after the KMT's presidential candidate, Vice President Lien Chan, said that the party would put its business empire in trust if he was elected.
Lien made the pledge Jan. 2 when he opened his national campaign headquarters -- and, as it turned out, launched a fierce debate over the assets both within and outside the party.
"Political parties must end their businesses and the KMT will take the initiative by having its property entrusted [to professional managers]," Lien said. "In this way a fairer field for competition among political parties will be created."
Lee's comments yesterday came after the standing committee approved a report from a task force studying how to go about putting the assets into a trust.
"This is a forward-looking policy, which was already discussed -- with a consensus reached -- at the National Development Conference," Lee said. "It is a good idea, but back then the timing was not yet right."
Lee was referring to a cross-party meeting he called in December 1996 to search for a consensus on constitutional reform and other major political reforms. A consensus was indeed reached that political parties should not run commercial businesses, but the idea was never implemented by the KMT, the only party to have a profit-oriented business empire.
Lee's promise to take care of party employees with party assets may help ease their worries, but keeping the assets (estimated at around NT$200 billion) also means that Lien's goal of leveling the playing field for political parties will not be attained, an analyst said.
"Even after entrusting its assets, the KMT still owns the money," said Yang Tai-shuenn (
"As long as the KMT keeps the money, how can other parties compete with it on fair terms?"
"Judging from opinion polls, Lien has not been able to improve his image or to garner more support following his proposal to entrust party assets," Yang said.
"If he wants to effectively pitch himself as a reformer, he has to do something more drastic. Donating the party-run Broadcasting Corporation of China to the government, for example, if not giving up all its assets."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique