DPP attacks KMT attempts to place its assets in trust

The KMT, which announced Wednesday it was putting the bulk of its wealth into trust, cannot reverse its corruption-prone image as the party has yet to liquidate its illegally acquired assets, DPP lawmakers said yesterday.

The vast interest on these assets will continue to provide the main opposition party with financial advantages beyond the reach of other political parties in Taiwan, DPP lawmaker Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) said.

A day earlier, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said his party would put NT$24.9 billion (US$711 million) worth of its assets into trust with Credit Suisse later this month.

In addition, Lien said the party will soon dissolve its Investment and Business Management Committee, through which former KMT treasurer Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) reportedly wielded formidable influence over the nation's stock market and industrial enterprises.

The party said it has yet to decide what to do with a remaining NT$9 billion in assets controlled by a party-owned holding company.

Chen said the KMT, if it was really determined to part from the era when lines between the former KMT administration and state coffers were blurred, should quit stalling a set of "sunshine" bills designed to regulate political parties and their assets.

The party asset bill, in particular, would allow the government to probe assets illegally obtained by any political party and return them to the country accordingly.

A 2001 Control Yuan report said that the KMT, during its five-decade rule, transferred ownership of scores of public properties under its stewardship to its headquarters and local chapters without due compensation.

Properties in question include 19 theaters taken over from the Japanese colonial regime, 86 plots of land and 156 buildings given to the party by governments on various levels.

Unwilling to give up those assets, Chen said, the KMT caucus managed to hold up the party asset bill in the past legislative session, in exchange for its support for the Cabinet to borrow money from state coffers to pay back interest.

DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) shared the frustration and doubted the KMT claim that the value of its total assets had plummeted to NT$33 billion from NT$71.9 billion (US$2.05 billion) in three years.

"By putting more of its wealth into trust, the KMT seeks to legalize its ownership of properties plundered from the country," Yeh said. "The practice can never win approval from the people. I suggest the party return to the government all assets illegally acquired."

Chang Che-chen (張哲琛), head of the KMT Administration and Management Committee, has attributed the shrinking value of party assets to bad investments by his predecessor, Liu, when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) ruled the party.

The claim drew sharp protest from TSU lawmakers, who argued incumbent KMT leaders are to blame, as the party had more than NT$100 billion in assets when Lee relinquished his leadership shortly after the 2000 presidential polls.