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.
also see story:
Editorial: Chairman Ma, return the assets
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do