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Ma Yung-cheng `not a quitter'

Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) yesterday dismissed speculation that he had tendered his resignation after a spate of allegations lodged against him.

"I never offered to resign nor did the president ask me to," Ma told a press conference held at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. "Besides, it is not my style to give up in the face of adversity. I'm not a quitter."

Ma also denied that he had received a red envelope containing NT$2 million (US$61,671) from Hua Nan Financial Holding Co chairman Lin Ming-cheng (林明成) on his wedding day, adding that he had not received money or gifts from anyone.

Lin yesterday issued a statement dismissing the allegations.

Ma said yesterday that he planned to file a lawsuit against KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) for accusing him of taking money from Lin via a merger between financial institutions.

Ma has filed a defamation lawsuit against noted political commentator Hu Chung-hsin (胡忠信) for making a similar accusation.

The Presidential Office deputy secretary-general made the comments in response to allegations made by Chiu and Hu at separate press conferences earlier yesterday, where they accused Ma of accepting large amounts of money from two financial holding companies.

"We learned from two media commentators that Lin gave Ma NT$2 million at Ma's wedding on Sept. 18, 2002," Hu said.

Hu refused to name the two media commentators.

Later yesterday, Hua Nan Financial issued a statement denying Chiu and Hu's accusations. The statement said that Lin had not given any wedding gift to Ma, and that his position as company chairman had nothing to do with the government official.

Chiu and Hu also accused Ma of meddling in mergers of financial institutions and demanded that he explain whether he had acted on his own or on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍).

Chiu also speculated that Lin had been elected chairman of Hua Nan Financial because of his close relationship with Ma.

Denying Chiu and Hu's claims, Ma yesterday admitted that he had asked former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) to arrange a meeting at the Presidential Office with Pacific Distribution Investment Co chairman Lee Heng-lung (李恆隆) and the head of My Humble House Group, Tsai Chen-yang (蔡辰洋).

Ma said he had requested the meeting to clear up the rumor that the Presidential Office was involved in the competition for operational control of the Sogo Department Store.

"I told them that I had heard some rumors that the Presidential Office was involved in the matter and made it clear that we would never do such a thing, simply because it was a private business deal," Ma said.

He also denied that he had anything to do with bids for operational control of China Development Financial Holding Co, Waterland Financial Holding Co and Fuhwa Financial Holding Co, as these firms fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and had been handled by then finance minister Lin Chuan (林全).

Lin Chuan, who attended Ma's press conference yesterday, said that he had adopted consistent criteria while handling the matter: Whoever owned more stakes in the company was allocated more seats on the board.

Ma yesterday demanded that Chiu produce evidence for his allegation that the Presidential Office had interfered in Chinatrust Financial Holding Co's plan to invest in Mega Financial Holding Co.

Regarding claims of underhanded telephone conversations between Ma and Minister of Finance Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠), Ma said that he had no idea what Chiu was getting at.

Ma also dismissed Chiu's allegation that he had abused his administrative power by using a Presidential Office vehicle to pick up his then girlfriend before their marriage.
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