Amid allegations over his relationship with a convicted double murderer and former Nantou County gang boss, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said he would resign if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could provide any evidence of irregularities in their relationship.
The DPP candidate for next month’s Nantou County commissioner election, Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), has accused Wu of arranging the distribution of benefits from the local gravel trade and the election of a new Nantou County Council speaker and vice speaker during a trip to Bali, Indonesia, last December.
He alleges that Chiang Chin-liang (江欽良), a paroled convicted felon, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) also went on the trip.
“Lee said he had evidence. Please make the evidence public within three days and I will resign immediately,” Wu Den-yih said.
He added: “If not, [Lee] must apologize, otherwise I will bring a criminal action against Lee for slander and demand civil compensation to clarify the truth and defend my reputation.”
The DPP has continued to question the premier’s links to Chiang since local media on Wednesday reported Wu and his wife were caught on camera vacationing in Bali with Chiang and Lee Chao-ching.
Wu yesterday called a press conference to respond to the allegations after comments he made about not helping Chiang obtain special permission to meet Kuo Ping-hui (郭平輝), a gangster and the mastermind behind an infamous 2007 staged televised video threat, were undermined.
On Thursday, Wu Den-yih denied any involvement in the January meeting.
But Wu Cheng-po (吳正博), warden of the prison in Taichung where Kuo is incarcerated, told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Thursday, that the face-to-face meeting between Chiang and Kuo was arranged by the premier in his then capacity as a lawmaker.
Saying that helping voters meet inmates was one of the services lawmakers often provide, Wu Den-yih added that such matters are usually taken care of by legislative assistants.
“I didn’t know anything about the meeting before [Thursday] ... but now I’ve discovered my local office helped Chiang, I won’t detach myself from that,” Wu Den-yih said.
Wu Den-yih said that he had spoken to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) by telephone on Thursday night, adding that Ma had backed him over the matter.
“President Ma said that everyone makes mistakes and we should accept people who have erred as long as they know they are wrong. If they consistently fail to repent, they will be held legally responsible,” Wu Den-yih said.
He added that he had never criticized the DPP for visits by its members to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who had been sentenced over corruption charges.
In Nantou, Chiang said he had paid a huge debt for mistakes he made 20 years ago and even his wife knew nothing about his criminal record.
Chiang said he does not know Wu Den-yih very well. He said Wu was just a casual acquaintance and they occasionally ran into each other at activities in Nantou County.
Saying that he had been a supporter of the DPP, Chiang said he had helped former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in organizing activities and had met former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Meanwhile, the DPP continued to hammer the premier over his association with Chiang and said Wu should resign immediately because he had lost credibility.
While both the premier and Chiang have said he is a “changed man” and an upstanding citizen, the DPP said it suspected Chiang was still a local gang boss involved in the gravel industry and the night market scene.
Talking of the prison meeting, DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said: “At first Wu denied it, but later flipped to say it was his assistant. He has obviously lied and therefore he must issue a public apology.”
Rejecting Wu Den-yih’s claim that the process was handled by his staffer, Tsai said such an arrangement would require the personal appearance of a lawmaker.
“If Chiang and Wu [Den-yi] were not good buddies as they have claimed, then why go on a vacation together and why did Wu agree to arrange the meeting,” the spokesman asked, saying Wu had lost credibility.
DPP legislator William Lai (賴清德) demanded that Wu Den-yih disclose who paid for the Bali trip, adding that given his alleged ties with gangsters, Lee Chao-ching should drop out of the Nantou County commissioner race immediately.
At a press conference, Chiang said Lee Wen-chung only started accusing him of being a crime boss after he turned down his plea for support — an allegation strongly denied by the DPP nominee.
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
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
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
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