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Yu defends first lady from insider trading allegations

As opposition lawmakers yesterday questioned first lady Wu Shu-chen over (吳淑珍) stock transactions amid allegations of insider trading, Premier Yu Shyi-kun defended the president's wife in the legislature, saying that she had not done anything illegal.

"The first lady's financial investments in the stock market are not the Cabinet's business and I don't see any illegal transaction there," Yu said during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan.

Earlier yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Liao Fung-te (廖風德) accused Wu of profiting from insider tra-ding, with transactions in the stock market in January alone amounting to NT$30 million.

"Why doesn't President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) tell us some insider information so we can all make a profit?" Hsieh said.

At the question-and-answer session, KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) said that Wu's transactions in the stock market in November and December totaled about NT$30 million. Liao said that in January Wu accumulated another NT$30 million from playing the stock market.

When asked whether his wife was involved in any stock transactions, Yu said that as far as he knew she was not involved in the stock market.

"Even if she has any stocks, they were inherited a long time ago," Yu said.

Meanwhile, in response to a pan-blue attack on the necessity of the election-day referendum, Yu said that the referendum was necessary despite a high public consensus over the two questions contained in the referendum.

"Switzerland and Hungary have held referendums with turnout rates of more than 90 percent," Yu said.

"The turnout rate of Mongolia's independence referendum in 1921 was 100 percent. Questioning the neccesity of the referendum doesn't make any sense," he said.

Yu yesterday also instructed the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice to crack down on vote-buying and election gambling in response to a request from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (郭玟成).

Kuo said that gambling on the election outcome was rampant in southern Taiwan.

"It's a different way of vote-buying and there's someone manipulating things behind the scenes," he said. "Those afraid of losing the game would be motivated to persuade others to cast their ballots for the candidate they have bet on."

Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said that law enforcement officers had staged crackdowns on vote-buying and would beef up their efforts.

Yu also called on presidential-candidate supporters to exercise sportsmanship should their candidates lose the poll.

"We'd really hate to see the recurrence of the besieging of the KMT headquarters after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) lost the presidential poll in 2000," Yu said, adding that the Cabinet would strengthen prevention measures to pre-empt such a scenario taking place.
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