The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for causing his party "to degenerate" and the city's development "to regress" in the year since he assumed the chairmanship.
Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Ma's inauguration, DPP Spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (
Tsai said that several KMT politicians whose campaigns Ma supported, including Hsinchu Commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金) and Keelung Mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利), had been charged with corruption since assuming office.
These cases proved that "the corrupt system of the KMT has remained unchanged," he said.
Tsai said that while Ma had repeatedly promised to deal with the party's "ill-gotten" assets, the KMT had sold NT$23 billion (US$703.36 million) worth of its assets under Ma's leadership.
He said the DPP had begun a signature drive for a proposal to hold a public referendum to reclaim the KMT's "ill-gotten" assets and that it would submit more than 80,000 signatures to the Central Election Commission for review by next Wednesday.
He said that after the commission finished the review process, the DPP would initiate a second-stage signature drive with the goal of collecting 800,000 signatures by the end of the year.
The DPP hoped that the referendum will be held next year, he added.
In response, Ma yesterday said that after the KMT Central Standing Committee's meeting on Aug. 23, he would explain how the party had handled the assets, including investment profits and losses.
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Editorial: Chairman Ma, return the assets
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