Former Legislative Speaker Liu Sung-pan (劉松藩), who until recently was the nation's most senior legislator with 10 terms in office, resigned both his seat and his People First Party (PFP) membership after he was sentenced to four years in prison for corruption last week.
But Liu made the decision the withdraw from political life while in the US to observe the Republican convention, and some of questioned whether Liu, 72, would return to the country to serve his sentence.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
In 1998, during his tenure as legislative speaker, Liu used his status as the former chairman of Taichung Business Bank to broker a NT$1.5 billion loan to the Kuangsan Group, and in return he received a kickback of NT$150 million.
He was sentenced to four years in prison for breach of trust and given a NT$30 million fine -- a sentence that cannot be appealed.
Liu's downfall coincided with that of Yunlin Country Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), who was sentenced to 12 months for vote-buying but has also fled the country.
Liu has been described by his allies as a sophisticated politician who has a deep insight into current affairs. But his detractors are not hesitant to point out that like many old-style Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians, Liu was deeply submerged in the culture of "black gold" politics.
"He was a traditional KMT politician. He fell the way he prospered," said DPP Legislator Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌). Hong is a veteran legislator in his fifth term and witnessed Liu during his prime years in the legislature.
"He was not someone with a leadership style of his own. He was like most other KMT politicians, carrying out the party's orders faithfully," Hong said of Liu's term as legislative speaker.
After years as a heavyweight in the KMT, Liu drifted away from his party amid a difference of opinion with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) over Lee's intention to freeze the Taiwan Provincial Government to diminish James Soong's (宋楚瑜), influence as then government chairman.
Liu's support for Soong angered the former president, and although Liu later succeeded in persuading Soong not to oppose to Lee's move, in 1999, Lee decided to replace Liu as legislative speaker with his deputy, Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Liu left the KMT when Soong broke away from the party and established the PFP and ran in the 200 presidential election. Liu was an integral force in helping Soong establish the fledgling party.
During his time in the legislature, Liu was a member of the powerful "13 Brothers Fraternity" (十三兄弟會), of which Wang, his deputy speaker, was also a member.
But like the Kuangsan case, the fraternity dissolved after its founder, former legislator and chairman of the Tenth Credit Cooperative (十信) Tsai Chen-chou (蔡辰洲) was found guilty of embezzlement in 1985 and sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
Although Liu and Wang almost parted ways over the speakership job, Wang retained a sense of respect for Liu and spoke well of him even after Liu's sentence.
"Liu was a very experienced legislator. He is an astute political observer who makes excellent decisions," Wang said.
"As the legislative speaker, Liu engaged in many reforms, including the amendment to the five fundamental laws for the Legislative Yuan. He also set up the interparty negotiation mechanism and improved legislative efficiency," Wang said.
PFP caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) described Liu Sung-pan as someone who valued friendships and bonds between people, said he admired his courage in leaving the KMT and helping establish the PFP at a time when the public was not friendly toward breakaway politicians.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching