Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) yesterday publicized the findings of his investigation into the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party assets that spanned 14 years and six months, calling the KMT assets “the Ring” — alluding to an object with strong, alluring powers that is hard to give up, from The Lord of the Rings.
A two-term Control Yuan member who has not been nominated to serve another term, Huang told a press conference in Taipei that he wanted to finalize the case before leaving the post as he does “not expect that there will be another member who will continue the task.”
“The KMT’s party assets are the product of an authoritarian party-state and have to be terminated for the soundness and consolidation of Taiwan’s party politics and, thereby, its democracy,” he said. “Of all the democratic countries in the world, there is no other democracy that has been troubled by a party’s assets for more than 20 years.”
He and other members who worked on the case have summarized the party’s assets into three types that they believe are of questionable origin: 114 houses and their bases that were taken over from the Japanese colonial government, 19 theaters turned over to the party for its management by the provincial special administration that was in operation from 1945 to 1947, and at least 79 public properties and 34 buildings given by local governments to the party as gifts.
More than 14 years of investigations have witnessed the party announcing its willingness to return the properties whose origins have been in doubt and actually returning some of them, Huang said.
“But the process is not complete,” he added, saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — who claimed in 2005 in his capacity as party chairman that the KMT would have the party-asset issue settled by 2008 — “is guilty of dereliction of duty.”
Huang said that Ma, compared with his predecessors, is probably the KMT party chairman that has exhibited the most positive attitude toward returning party assets and was once the most resolute, “but it is now 2014 and his promise has not yet been made good.”
The legislation process for regulations on political parties’ assets procured through illegitimate means has also been encountering setbacks, according to Huang.
The draft act proposed by the Executive Yuan when the Democratic Progressive Party was in power was three times sent to the Legislative Yuan, where the KMT was the majority as it is now, but every time failed to be scheduled by the Procedure Committee to be referred to the related standing committee for deliberation.
After the KMT returned to power, there have been only two meetings at the legislature’s joint committee session, in 2012, to discuss related regulations, and no result has been achieved, Huang said.
“Only when ‘the Ring’ disappears from Taiwan’s political scene can the political playing field be leveled and the spirit of social justice be materialized,” he said.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge. Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Derek Pang (彭偉昌) said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal from Lai, and another defendant in the case, to proceed, as a lower court judge had “erred.” “The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences,” the judges
RSS