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Premier lambastes KMT over stolen assets

"I am trying to make [the pan-blue camp] understand that [the budget proposal] is far more important than a political tug of war. But I do not know whether or not they are getting the message."

Su Tseng-chang, premier

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday went on the offensive against the pan-blue camp, which has promised to "maintain a clean government and protect Taiwan no matter what it takes."

"The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has stolen billions of dollars from the people over the past century. They never returned the money to the people. Can this be called `clean?'" Su said.

"Can a party that has robbed the nation of billions of dollars call itself a party of integrity?" he said.

"In addition, the KMT and its People First Party [PFP] ally have boycotted our arms purchase plan 56 times during legislative meetings. They have not even wanted to talk about it on the legislative floor. Can this be called `protecting Taiwan no matter what it takes?'" the premier said in his opening speech at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.

Su said the Control Yuan had requested that the Cabinet investigate the KMT's illegal assets in 2001.

The result of the investigation showed that the KMT had assets that were supposed to belong to the government worth more than NT$20 billion (US$613 million). Five years later, the KMT has returned NT$1.3 billion worth. The Ministry of Finance has filed requests with the KMT asking it to return the remaining stolen assets over the past five years but these have been ignored.

Su said that the Cabinet had in 2002 submitted legislation that aimed to outline the procedure for handling political party's illegally acquired assets.

The proposal is still pending because the KMT has vetoed it 42 times.

"As for the arms purchase proposal, we have fixed the proposal and tried everything we can to negotiate with them [the pan-blue camp]. However, this proposal is also pending. They do not even want to discuss it on the legislative floor," Su said.

The premier said that the government currently needs the legislature's help regarding the budget to construct anti-flood facilities.

"I am trying to make [the pan-blue camp] understand that [the budget proposal] is far more important than a political tug of war. But I do not know whether or not they are getting the message," he said.
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