A controversy over the tens of thousands of allegedly missing documents from the Presidential Office has led at least one senior aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to counter by saying that he is considering filing a lawsuit.
Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), a former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general who is among the 17 former senior officials accused of improperly filing official documents, said yesterday that he had not ruled out the possibility of legal action.
“Personally, I can’t accept these accusations. If neither President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) nor the Presidential Office can show us evidence as to where their allegations come from, we will be filing a slander suit,” Chen Chi-mai said. “Ma said that he was livid when he learned of the news, but I’m even more furious.”
Chen Chi-mai and the other 16 former officials learned of the accusations late on Tuesday night, after sporadic media reports coming from the Presidential Office said that a two-year investigation had uncovered more than 32,000 missing documents.
The controversy came after Chen Shui-bian was found last year to have taken dozens of boxes of official documents from the Presidential Office when his term ended in 2008.
Also included on the list were former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who is vying for the DPP’s presidential nomination next month.
Asked about the allegations yesterday, Lu said the investigation had “clear political motivation.”
“It’s incredible,” Lu said. “Presidents and vice presidents don’t handle the filing of documents personally. These official files are always handled by staffers who closely follow existing protocols.”
“If they are going to investigate this issue, why not start before 2000 — before the previous [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] administration ended? They shouldn’t just pick and choose,” she said.
Su said he believed “society would be the best judge” of whether the accusations were politically motivated.
“Every government agency in Taiwan, big or small, has specialized departments in charge of document processing,” Su said. “Ma should perhaps be more concerned with public welfare problems than spending time being ‘livid’ about this.”
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