Recently elected Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (
On Sunday, Chu and his wife, Wu Der-mei (
The couple reportedly engaged in illicit activities to secure Chu's third term and speakership in the council, which makes crucial decisions on construction of the city's mass rapid transit system.
Contractors building the multi-billion transport system allegedly helped pay for Chu's vote-buying scheme that has implicated councilors from across party lines.
DPP council caucus whip Jan Yung-lung (
Chu has been on a hunger strike to protest his arrest.
His disputed electoral triumph is widely considered the product of ingrained corrupt money politics that has threatened country's financial health and sapped the public's confidence in the government.
Ambitious and venturesome, Chu and his wife rapidly increased their wealth between the 1970s and 1990s through their An Feng Group, which spans the construction, fishing, steel, metal and securities industries.
This was partly made possible by cozy political connections the couple cultivated during the period, when both held important elected offices.
In 1973, Chu first entered politics by winning a seat on the Kaohsiung City Council at the age of 28. Before that, he worked at the accounting department of the Formosa Plastics Group for six years.
Chu, 59, once said he most admired FPG Chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), who started building the Sixth Naphtha Cracker at the age of 78 and has continued to expand his business empire.
After serving as a councilor for two terms, Chu decided to move up the political ladder. In 1981, he was elected as a Control Yuan member when the position was chosen by deputies of the now-defunct Provincial Assembly.
While Chu was in the Control Yuan, Wu succeeded in inheriting Chu's constituency support and won a seat on the Kaohsiung City Council. She served as a legislator between 1984 and 1996, during which time the couple made their An Feng Steel Co the country's third largest steelmaker.
After a 1992 constitutional amendment gave the president the power to name Control Yuan members, Chu retired from the watchdog agency in 1993. He ran for Kaohsiung City councilor in 1994 to keep his political career alive and won.
His wife opted to focus on their businesses, which had showed signs of decline and plunged into a state of crisis amid the regional financial crisis in 1997.
The couple, both KMT stalwarts at that time, sought help from then-KMT treasurer Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), who in 1998 directed the party's businesses to pump NT$2.5 billion into Feng An Metal Co, even though experts branded the firm as "beyond redemption."
Chu broke ranks with the KMT later the same year to run for his second term as an independent.
In May 2000, prosecutors indicted the couple on charges of embezzlement, forgery and tax evasion and recommended imprisonment of seven years for Chu and two years and four months for Wu. Evidence indicated the couple, beginning in 1992, had stolen more than NT$20 billion from their own companies.
The failure by the court to act on the indictments has prompted Justice Minister Chen Ding-nan (
The couple appeared unfazed by the series of charges, however.
Earlier last year, Chu reportedly asked his employees and business associates to move their registered residencies to his constituency and offered them NT$500 each to vote for his re-election on Dec 7. His final showing is believed to have benefited from more than 1,000 so-called ghost voters.
"It is unfair to brand me a `black gold' figure as I have never joined any gang or engaged in anything illegal," Chu said two days after winning the speakership on Dec. 25.
He dismissed the cross-party campaign to seek his ouster as a joke, noting that public representatives may not be removed during their first year in office.
The KMT has ordered its Kaohsiung council caucus to sack Chu in a show of regret for electing him as their speaker.
Former Kaohsiung City councilor Cheng Ming-ching (鄭明進), one of Chu's vote captains, has admitted to dishonest electioneering practices. Prosecutors have demanded Chu jailed for 28 and Cheng for 18 months for this offense.
To further augment his political clout, Chu allegedly offered councilors of all stripes substantial bribes to vote for him as speaker. He had eyed the post in 1994 but was thwarted by then-speaker Chen Tien-mao (陳田錨), whose family wielded formidable influence over local politics.
"I did not pay a dime for the speakership," Chu said a day before his detention, claiming his victory was the result of partisan rivalry between the ruling and opposition camps.
Following the transfer of power, he had warmed up to the DPP and briefly flirted with the PFP.
He originally struck a pact with the DPP council caucus under which they would endorse Chu's bid to run for speaker if he would join the party and help it win the vice speakership.
The plan fell apart only after President Chen Shui-bian (
Still, Chu was able to win the speakership, thanks to the backing of KMT, PFP and independent colleagues.
The move reeked of pecuniary tradeoffs, though opposition councilors said they voted for Chu to deny DPP candidates the leading role in the local assembly.
TSU Kaohsiung City Councilor Chao Tien-ling (
"That is why candidates lavish so much money on getting elected," he said.
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