Presidential Office denies sending Lin's relatives gift

The Presidential Office yesterday denied that it sent a commemorative inscription to defector Justin Lin's (林毅夫) relatives for Lin's father's funeral ceremony.

The Presidential Office was responding to a report that a framed piece of Chinese calligraphy -- which praised Lin's father as a man of virtue and had President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) name on it underneath -- was received by the Lin family on Tuesday.

"We neither received any request from Lin's family nor an application [for such a plaque] from any other person," said Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) yesterday.

Huang added that it is common practice that local government officials or other well-known figures will often ask the calligrapher they commission to add the president's name to a couplet, without asking the Presidential Office for permission to do so.

Framed pieces of calligraphy are often commissioned for funerals or other occasions.

Opposition lawmakers sharply criticized the Presidential Office and other government officials yesterday, accusing them of sending commemorative inscriptions to Lin's family for the funeral.

Lin has been widely denounced as a traitor for defecting to China in 1979. He is now a well-known scholar at Beijing University and an adviser to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基).

On Sunday he decided not to return to Taiwan to attend his father's funeral, despite being granted permission to do so by the government.

After the opposition spoke out against the gift, Liu Ho-ming (劉和明), who currently serves as a senior calligrapher in the Ilan County Council, yesterday admitted that the calligraphy in question was his own.

"A county councilor said that all of the government's leaders, except for President Chen, had already sent commemorative inscriptions to the Lin family. He then asked me to do the calligraphy and promised that he would ensure the Presidential Office would approve it," said a different county councilor yesterday, quoting Liu.

The framed calligraphy was then sent to the Lins and hung on the wall where the funeral was held. While it bore the president's name, it did not have his chop.

Liu refused to tell the media the identity of the county councilor who commissioned the piece.

Liu said that he had learned a lesson and would be more cautious the next time he is commissioned to write a couplet or other message on someone's behalf.

Almost all local governments in Taiwan employ calligraphers to write messages for funerals, weddings or anniversaries on the behalf of that administration.

Yesterday some KMT lawmakers urged the Presidential Office to regulate the practice.

"The Presidential Office should press charges against people who fake signatures on [these gifts]," said KMT lawmaker Chu Feng-chi (朱鳳芝).

According to government regulations concerning applications for plaques or couplets to bear the president's name, only those people who make outstanding contributions to the state, hold a high public office, serve as leaders in overseas Chinese groups, or die over the age of 90 are qualified to receive one.

"However, people in this country don't abide by official regulations because they stress personal relationships," a Presidential Office official said. "The Presidential Office sometimes even agrees to send commemorative inscriptions to certain people [who don't qualify] because some heavyweight politicians or important election campaign supporters applied for it.