The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday filed lawsuits against 102 incumbent and retired government officials who received special allowance funds in an effort to clear former Taipei mayor and KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) name.
The 102 people sued are personnel who served or are still serving as ministerial officials under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration since 2000. Several KMT members might be included on the list.
"We have no choice but to do this ... We want to highlight the flawed special allowance fund system and the irrational circumstances in which Ma was indicted," KMT caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) told a press conference.
The KMT also said that it would sue all the officials granted special allowances should their lawsuit fail to prove that Ma's corruption charge was a result of an "historical glitch" rather than his "own fault."
Statistics from the government show there are more than 6,500 government officials in central and local government who receive special allowance funds every month, including principals of public schools at all levels.
Ma was indicted on corruption charges after it was discovered he wired half of his monthly special allowance fund into a personal account during his term as Taipei mayor from 1998 to last December. He is now on trial.
The DPP again tried to put an amendment aimed at banning Ma from running in next year's presidential race onto the legislative agenda at yesterday's legislative Procedure Committee meeting, but the motion was voted down by the pan-blue camp.
The amendment to the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (
Four People First Party (PFP) lawmakers sitting on the committee sided with the KMT to help it block the amendment after the KMT promised that seven incumbent PFP lawmakers whose constituencies have no KMT incumbents would be nominated as joint candidates in December's legislative election.
`win-win'
"In order to create a win-win situation for the KMT and PFP, we have no reason to doubt the KMT. We don't want to bicker like the DPP," PFP Legislator Hwang Yih-jiau (
In response to PFP doubts over the party's sincerity, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
Meanwhile, the PFP also helped the KMT put an amendment to the Audit Law (
The amendment is designed to redefine special allowance funds as "substantial subsidies."
It says that special allowances claimed before the end of last year should be seen as "substantial subsidies," defying the doctrine of non-retroactivity -- a general principle in legislation.
"The amendment is being proposed solely in order to decriminalize Ma," DPP Legislator Kao Chien-chih (
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," he said, referring to the pan-blue camp.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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