Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday confirmed that he refused to sign a reconciliation agreement presented to him by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during the “September strife” in 2013.
Ma revealed the existence of the agreement in his book, Memoir on Eight Years of Governance (八年執政回憶錄), which was released on Wednesday.
Asked about the agreement, Wang yesterday said that due to the way it was written, signing the deal would have been admitting that he had unduly used his influence.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“I did not use my influence in an improper way, so why should I sign that?” he said.
The September strife refers to a political storm caused by Ma in 2013, in which he accused Wang, who was then legislative speaker, of interfering in the judicial system.
Charges filed against Wang by the now-defunct Special Investigation Division were dropped due to insufficient evidence and then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) was handed a 15-month prison term, which was commutable to a fine, for wiretapping the Legislative Yuan.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers at the time said that Huang was acting on Ma’s orders.
Wang yesterday said that the public deserves to know the truth and urged people to fact-check and see for themselves how far his actions were from improper lobbying.
Asked for comment on portions of Ma’s book about him, Wang said that he had no comment, as he had not read it.
Ma is entitled to his own opinions, he added.
Regarding a remark by Ma that the September strife indirectly caused the 2014 Sunflower movement to spread like wildfire, Wang said that he respected the former president’s interpretation, but that events should be put into perspective.
Student protesters who stormed the legislature were mainly upset about then-KMT legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), cochair of the legislature’s Internal Committee, disregarding legislative procedure to force a cross-strait trade and services agreement through a preliminary review, Wang said.
Wang is next month scheduled to publish a book titled The Bridge (橋).
Wang said he hopes to be a bridge that connects people from different backgrounds and to offer advice to the nation’s next president.
Asked about reportedly saying that he would rather run for president than vice president, Wang, who has said that he would leave the legislature in 2020, said that his contributions during his time at the Legislative Yuan were no less than those of a vice president.
Asked if he would run for president, he said that he would “let fate” decide.
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