Former Kaohsiung mayor Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday presented documents at a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) meeting to argue that it was the premier, not him, who had decided to use the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model to build the city's MRT system.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) ordered an investigation team be set up to look at the issue.
The BOT model has come under fire after Thai laborers helping construct the MRT, and working under the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp, rioted in protest of poor working conditions.
Premier Frank Hsieh (
During the KMT's Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting yesterday, Wu, currently a KMT legislator, presented eight official documents to explain the decision-making process of the city's MRT system. While Wu had decided on the "direction" of building the system under a BOT formula in December 1997, the Cabinet turned down the proposal and asked the city government to re-examine the case, according to the city's official documents.
After Hsieh took over as mayor, he began the BOT's public bidding process on Jan. 30, 1999, and submitted a document to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on March 12, 1999, stating that after a careful review, the city government had decided to stick with the BOT model.
"No matter how he [Hsieh] has tried to turn black into white, these documents prove that he was lying. The person responsible for making the decision to use the BOT model to build the MRT system was him, not me," Wu said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the KMT have both taken out advertisements in Chinese-language newspapers recently, each trying to blame the other for choosing a BOT model to build the MRT.
The issue generated enthusiastic discussions and CSC members urged the KMT to investigate the issue and oversee the central government more aggressively.
"The KMT should organize an anti-corruption protest against the rotten administration and invite the public to oversee the government together with us," said CSC member Chu Feng-chih (
Chu's remarks won the support of many CSC members, who proposed that the KMT should protest against the government's handling of not only the Kaohsiung MRT case, but a series of other issues.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (
"If we initiate a no-confidence vote against Hsieh, it is crucial that we ask the president to dismiss the legislature and, after new elections, have the winning party form the Cabinet," he said.
While agreeing that the KMT should exercise its power as the biggest opposition party to oversee the central government and the MRT case, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
"It is our responsibility to investigate the whole issue. However, it is important that we examine it to reveal the truth, but not pursue the case relentlessly for political interests," he said.
Ma said that a decision on whether to take the protest to the streets would require careful review. He ordered KMT Vice Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) to establish a committee to respond to the MRT case and other issues.
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:
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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