KMT sours to former police head

Former National Police Adminis-tration director-general Yao Kao-chiao (姚高橋) was the most high-profile of the 11 people who had their KMT memberships revoked on Wednesday by the party's Evaluation and Discipline Com-mittee.

Yao was expelled, with the approval of the KMT Central Standing Committee, for throwing his support behind the DPP's Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in the recent Kaohsiung mayoral race.

The KMT's candidate in the race, Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英), secured 47 percent of the vote, losing to Hsieh, who won 50 percent support.

Prior to Huang's nomination as a candidate, Yao had been a possible KMT nominee, along with Kaohsiung City Council speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川).

Chen Kang-chin (陳庚金), director-general of the discipline committee, said that Yao was subject to disciplinary action because his stumping for the DPP was an obvious, harmful act that defied KMT policy.

"Members of the party's Evaluation and Discipline Committee were filled with indignation with regard to Yao's conduct," Chen said.

"All felt that expulsion was not a severe enough punishment."

Committee members were not the only ones angry with Yao. The KMT Union, in a statement last week, called on Yao to return all his paychecks for the past two years while he was vice convener of the internal affairs department at the National Policy Foundation, a KMT-sponsored think tank.

The KMT Union urged Yao to do so in order to demonstrate his honesty and integrity.

"Yao has been cultivated by the party for his entire life [in police work], yet now he's turned to the enemy's camp," Chen said, adding that Yao has lost his integrity in recent years.

Yao was once a member of the party's Central Standing Committee, the party's highest decision-making body.

Although Yao expressed regret for having been expelled, he defended his decision to support Hsieh and said that he is willing to forgive the KMT's accusations that have been made since the party lost the Kaohsiung race.

"As a faithful KMT member, I am not the only one who has been expelled or had to leave the party. I believe people can judge right from wrong," Yao said in a statement responding to the disciplinary action. "And time will prove I am right."

Yao said that of all the Kao-hsiung mayoral hopefuls, he found only Hsieh placed importance on public order, safety and police officers' well-being.

While Huang Jun-ying had never mentioned a word to Yao about public order, Yao said Hsieh had visited him several times to discuss the issue.

"That was why I offered him [Hsieh] my advice [with regard to public order]. I did so simply from my position as a citizen," Yao said.

"Unfortunately my decision was cruelly insulted by some KMT members. I had no choice but to show my public support for Hsieh," he said.

During Yao's decades-long career in police work, he has served as a director of Kaohsiung City Police, president of the Taiwan Police Academy and deputy director-general of the National Police Administration.

Yao was president of the Central Police University from 1995-1996 before he was made director-general of the National Police Administration in June 1996.

Yao, however, resigned form his post in August the following year along with the then premier Lien Chan (連戰) over a series of crimes which sparked widespread public outrage and led to two mass demonstrations in Taipei.