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Ma denies moving to alienate nation's business tycoons

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday dismissed allegations that his alienation from the business community had prompted many tycoons to back former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in the 2008 presidential election.

"My relationship with industry has always been normal. I take my relationship with both local and foreign business communities very seriously," Ma said at KMT headquarters.

Ma made the comments in response to a report in the Chinese-language newspaper China Times, which alleged that the chairman had dissuaded two business tycoons from joining the upcoming election for KMT Central Standing Committee members.

Ma's intention to weaken industry's influence on the party, the report said, had forced many tycoons to shift their support to Lien, and they had begun to promote a Lien-Ma ticket for the 2008 election.

Ma said that this year alone, he had already participated in 18 business forums to talk with representatives in the community in Taipei in his capacity as Taipei mayor.

The development of Neihu Science Park also provided a great chance for him to establish strong ties with both local and foreign enterprises, he said.

"I don't specifically establish or cut ties with the community," he added.

Ma declined to comment on the alleged Lien-Ma ticket.

The chairman also denied dissuading the two tycoons, who are also Central Standing Committee members -- Wang You-theng (王又曾), chairman of the Rebar Group, and Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), chairman of the Chinatrust Group -- from joining the committee election, saying that they had decided to withdraw from the July 29 poll of their own free will.

"The two senior [standing committee] members withdrew from the election voluntarily to give candidates of the younger generation a chance," he said.

KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) denounced the report as "not true, and impolite," saying that both businessmen took the initiative in expressing to Ma that they wouldn't run again and that Ma "respects their wishes."

The party currently has 210 Central Committee members who are all eligible to run in the election.

The 31 members of the KMT's Central Standing Committee form the party's core decision-making body. They will be elected to serve one-year terms by 1,532 party delegates, who will choose from among the members of the Central Committee.
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