Shih campaign changes tack, targets KMT

Yesterday the Million Voices Against Corruption campaign led by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) announced that it was changing the emphasis of the campaign from deposing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to pursuing the stolen assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

At a press conference yesterday, Shih said that Chen's name had already been ruined and his place in history cemented. As Chen still hasn't been toppled and people are losing patience with the campaign's peaceful methods, he said that the next step would be to push for the passage of the "Sunshine Laws" and the passage of a law governing the assets of political parties in the legislature.

Shih said that pursuing the KMT's stolen assets had gone on for too long and needed to be solved as quickly as possible.

He said that this plan was not a ploy to influence the upcoming end-of-the-year elections, but to help establish clean government in Taiwan.

The proposal also calls for a "First Family Article" (第一家庭條款) to be added to the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law (公職人員財產申報法) to make public the assets of government officials above ministerial level as well as those of their immediate family.

In response, KMT spokesperson Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) held a press conference to say that the KMT had always supported anti-corruption legislation and admired the anti-Chen campaign's actions, but that the KMT's assets were a historical issue and not graft.

He said that the KMT was willing to accept any investigation under the scope of the proposed Political Party Law (政黨法), but not as a political attack from the pan-green camp.

People First Party legislators Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) and Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交) said that party leaders would decide whether to support the proposals at a meeting today, but that most party members were probably against pushing for party assets legislation to avoid worsening their already strained relations with the KMT.