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Lee signs up to DPP's referendum bid

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has signed up to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) signature drive to hold a referendum to recover the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) stolen assets, the DPP confirmed yesterday.

Answering reporters' inquiries, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said Lee's endorsement was passed on to him at a dinner on June 20 through Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂), chairman of the pro-independence Hand-in-Hand Taiwan Alliance.

"Ng told me that Lee had endorsed it [the referendum] a long time ago ... I felt very happy when Ng handed the signature to me. I also told him he could have given it to me in public," Yu said.

Yu, however, said Ng did not tell him why Lee, a former KMT chairman, had decided to join the campaign.

Yu said he did not think Lee's endorsement contradicted his former role as KMT chairman, adding that those who have publicly promised but failed to return the KMT's stolen assets to the Taiwanese people -- such as KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) -- are the ones contradicting themselves.

The DPP initiated the campaign last November and reached its goal of collecting over 1.4 million signatures last month.

The Referendum Law (公投法) states that a referendum cannot be held unless 5 percent of the nation's eligible voters, or 830,000 people, endorse a referendum proposal.

"Lee believes the KMT's assets are a product of history. He endorsed the campaign because he hopes all political parties in the nation can compete fairly," said Chou Mei-li (周美里), a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Solidarity Union, of which Lee is the spiritual leader.

Asked for comments, DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓) gave a thumbs-up to Lee, saying that he had demonstrated great "moral courage."

"Recovering the stolen assets is a common goal of many people, including some KMT and People First Party members ... It is also a matter of right and wrong," DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said when asked about the matter by reporters at a religious ceremony in Taipei.

Approached for comments at the same event, Ma said he was "surprised" to learn of Lee's endorsement and "did not understand why" Lee had participated in the campaign because Lee had been responsible for dealing with many of the party's assets when he was KMT chairman.

KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) said the KMT's party-owned enterprises made a lot of money when Lee was party chairman, adding that it was the number of enterprises the party owned that had upset people back then.

"I assure everyone that we will not run any enterprises and will not make any money from them anymore," he said.

Wu said the KMT is now so poor that it has difficulty paying party staffers' salaries.

"What the KMT wants now is to fulfill its social responsibilities. After all, taking care of retired party staffers and giving party officials paychecks is also a social responsibility," he said.

In a related development, Ma yesterday dismissed speculation that he asked his running mate, former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), to meet Lee on the eve of the announcement of their ticket to seek Lee's support for Ma's campaign.

Wu also downplayed the speculation, saying the KMT is only trying to "make more friends."

Hsieh, however, criticized Ma, saying: "It is important for someone to be consistent rather than try to get close to certain people only ahead of elections."

Responding to Lee's support for the referendum campaign, KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) said: "Former president Lee might have forgotten what he had done before."

The period when Lee was KMT chairman was the most energetic in terms of the management of the party's assets, Wu said. The party made huge amounts of money and also suffered great losses, he said.

KMT caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) said it was inappropriate for Lee to sign the petition because he was a former KMT chairman.

KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) said that Lee was the least qualified to criticize the KMT's assets problem because he had benefited from the assets.

Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) praised Ma's bid to win Lee's support.

"It's a normal thing." Wang said, adding that Lee would help win over KMT pro-localization voters.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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