Print

Mail

wiki links

KMT calls for referendum on combating corruption

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, from right, Chen Chieh, Hsu Shao-ping and Tseng Yung-chuan, carry boxes with referendum petitions to a car to take them to the Central Election Committee yesterday in Taipei. The trio earlier held a press conference on the KMT's proposal for an ``anti-corruption'' referendum. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers sent a petition for an "anti-corruption" referendum to the government for review yesterday, saying that they had more than the 830,000 signatures needed for a formal proposal.

The KMT said its campaign was aimed at demanding officials convicted for corruption return their illegally gotten profits, which it called "national assets," to the public.

It also targets officials who formulate policies that benefit them and their cronies but are bad for the nation's economic development and the public.

KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) said that "trillions of dollars of money" had been embezzled from the government since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2000. He did not elaborate.

"Through putting their signatures on the petition, 1.05 million people have voiced their indignation at the DPP government. They wanted to help the country's 23 million people get justice," Wu told a press conference.

"Through putting their signatures on the petition, 1.05 million people have voiced their indignation at the DPP government."

Wu Den-yi, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general

The KMT lawmakers said the referendum would ask the public: "Do you agree with enacting a law to investigate the president and his key staff regarding their policy errors that have caused great losses to the nation, and authorizing the legislature to form an investigative committee with which all government departments must cooperate in order to uphold the public interest, punish errant officials and demand they return illicit gains to the state?"

Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), the head of the KMT's policy coordination department, said that the public has the right to ask policymakers to take responsibility for their actions.

Wu said the KMT wants the referendum to be held with next year's presidential election.

He denied the party was trying to counteract a DPP bid to hold a referendum on retrieving the KMT's stolen assets.

"The [KMT proposal] is very funny and obviously an imitation of [the DPP referendum bid]," DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓) told a separate press conference.

Wang said the DPP would support efforts to recover national assets stolen by the KMT when it was in office.

DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) criticized the KMT's campaign for its lack of creativity.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang
This story has been viewed 1197 times.