Support seen for party assets bill

More than half of the people polled in a government survey said that the legislature should pass the bill to deal with the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) ill-gotten assets as soon as possible.

They also said that they approved of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) New Year address, in which he invited opposition leaders for talks about government policy and bills concerning the general public. In addition, more than half of the respondents said that the new Cabinet should strengthen their negotiation ability.

However, less than half of the respondents said that they supported the NT$610.8 billion military procurement plan.

The poll, conducted by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會) from Jan. 4 to Jan. 5 and released yesterday, found that more than 56 percent of the people surveyed said that the legislature should pass the Disposition of Assets Improperly Obtained by Political Parties Law (政黨不當取得財產處理條例) as soon as possible, while about 15 percent of the respondents said that they disagreed and 29 percent said that they did not have an opinion.

Over 60 percent of the people surveyed said that they agreed with Chen's call during his New Year's address for both the ruling and opposition parties to take the initial step toward reconciliation and cooperation.

While about 4 percent of the respondents said that they disagreed with the president's proposal, nearly 36 percent of them opted to take a neutral stance on the issue.

In addition, more than 75 percent of the people said that the new Cabinet should reinforce its ability to negotiate with opposition parties and talk with the general public.

While about 5 percent of the people said that they did not agree, over 20 percent refused to comment on the matter.

When asked about the military procurement plan, 41 percent said that they agreed the legislature should pass the budget as soon as possible in order to beef up the nation's defense capability, while about 35 percent said they disagreed.

More than 74 percent of the respondents support Chen's proposal to establish a cross-strait peace and development committee, but about 7 percent said they did not agree with the proposal. More than 18 percent refused to comment.

While more than 70 percent of the people polled said that they did not have any preference for the head of the proposed committee, nearly 5 percent of the respondents favored People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), about 4 percent said that they supported Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT and 3.5 percent preferred former Mainland Affairs Council chairwoman and a new legislator-at-large of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) received 2.4 percent of the respondents' support, while former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) of the KMT and Fredrick Chien (錢復), the incumbent Control Yuan president, respectively obtained about 2 percent.