President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) plans to personally respond this week to accusations he accepted a political donation by former Tuntex Group chairman Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪), a source at the Presidential Office said yesterday.
"We have got information about Chen Yu-hao and the blue-camp's tricks. They just plan to continue a negative campaign," the source said.
"The pan-blue camp ignores the fact that the donations to President Chen and other politicians, especially those belonging to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), did not violate any law," the source said.
"They are just polluting the campaign and hope to create the impression that all Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweights, especially Chen, are dirty," he said.
On Monday, Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (
On Tuesday, first lady Wu Shu-chen (
The green camp has defended the president by claiming that Chen Yu-hao is just a tool of the blue camp being used to assist KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) campaign.
Chen Shui-bian's campaign manager Chiou I-jen (
Chang Ching-sen (
DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
Acknowledging that the first response from the DPP on the matter was inappropriate and resulted in more doubts in the media, the Presidential Office is worried that the event may become the party's biggest campaign crisis.
"The problem is not that the donation involved anything illegal. The problem is that the public will question the DPP's sincerity and integrity," the source at the Presidential Office said.
"The KMT admitted taking NT$100 million from Chen Yu-hao in the 2000 presidential election. The KMT also admitted that it spent NT$20 billion to help Chen Yu-hao survive his bankruptcy crisis, which proved that Lien and his party maintain a close relationship with Chen Yu-hao," the source said. "However, the public does not seem to care about that."
"Our crisis management in this event may not be good right now, which means President Chen must take charge," he said. "We believe that once the president gives his explanation, the harm of the KMT's negative campaign will be minimized."
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