With the KMT an obvious target of Executive Yuan-proposed legislation on the handling of "assets acquired inappropriately by political parties," KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday criticized the legislation as being against the principles of democracy and rule of law.
Also yesterday, the party issued a position paper saying it would take every legal means to protect the nation's constitutional system, which included filing for a constitutional interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices in case the DPP pushed what it called "unconstitutional" legislation through the legislature.
"This has set a bad example of political liquidation in the wake of the transition of power," Lien said during a weekly meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee.
Lien said the KMT insists that it is unnecessary for the government to resort to such an undemocratic method to handle the matter.
Promising that the party will deal with the controversies surrounding its assets with "high moral standards," Lien said the party has shown its resolve to do so by putting forth a draft for the Political Party Law.
The KMT draft contains a clause stating that a political party should, within two years of the law's implementation, return to their original donors or donate for public interest any "assets obtained by gift or historical reasons."
The bill is awaiting review in the legislature.
Chang Che-shen (張哲琛), director-general of the party's Administration and Management Committee, said over 90 percent of the KMT's assets were obtained legally through commercial transactions.
He said no more than 10 percent of the party's assets were given to them as gifts, adding that the DPP is trying to stigmatize the KMT's assets with the controversial legislation.
In the position paper released yesterday, the KMT said it is standing firm to protect the Constitution, not its assets.
"The KMT will never conceal its faults as long as constitutional, legal approaches are adopted," the paper stated.
The paper said that the unconstitutionality of the legislation is obvious in that it is unfavorable to one specific party, when generality should be a principle in law-making in a democratic country.
Another serious flaw of the legislation is a violation of the principle of "presumption of innocence," as it presumes all assets are illegal with the exception of incomes from membership fees, donations, subsidy funds and interest generated from these incomes, the paper said.
In addition, it said the bill creates a new system in which the administrative branch is given the power to investigate and recover the assets of a political party, which is an infringement of the powers of Control Yuan and judicial and prosecutorial authorities.
The paper said it is "extremely naive and ridiculous" that the DPP has tried to rationalize its liquidation of KMT assets with the argument that the bill is designed to make possible a fair competition between political parties.
See editorial:
When assets become a liability
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