Wu Ching-tang tells his side of scandal

A board member of the Jin-Wen Institute of Technology (景文技術學院) said yesterday that a fellow member had physically threatened an official of the Ministry of Education.

Wu Ching-tang (吳慶堂) told reporters yesterday that Chen Hsi-nan (陳錫南) had threatened violence against an education official as a part of his campaign to gain control of the institute.

Wu said that he had learned of Chen's threats from Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗).

Wu yesterday didn't identify the education official who had been threatened.

On March 30, journalist and political commentator Sisy Chen (陳文茜) claimed that it was Tzeng himself who was threatened at gunpoint by Chen Hsi-nan during a meeting. Tzeng had denied the report.

Wu spoke yesterday in order to clarify his role in the financial scandal.

The board member said he had recently briefed Tzeng twice on the case, and that at both meetings DPP legislator Hsu Jung-shu (許榮淑) and KMT legislator Lin Ming-i (林明義) were present.

Wu said he proposed to Tzeng that the ministry take over the school in order to ease the conflict over the institute's leadership.

Wu also said that during one of his conversations with Tzeng, the minister clearly told him that Chen had threatened to harm an education official who was failing to help Chen's bid to gain control of the school.

The board member also said yesterday that he and the institute's former chairman, Chang Wan-li (張萬利), had been good friends for more than 20 years, and that Chang had borrowed NT$150 million from him in February 1999.

Wu said that in March -- as Chang's business continued to decline -- he agreed to take over the reins from Chang.

Chang -- who is currently wanted by the police -- is believed to have embezzled more than NT$200 million from the school and fled abroad.

Wu said that beginning in June last year, Chen Hsi-nan began to demand that he share management of the school. "Chen repeatedly harassed me and asked lawmakers from different parties to pressure me," Wu said yesterday.