The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday accused two state-run banks of violating administrative impartiality by holding thanksgiving dinners to campaign for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (
"Many state-run banks have been holding year-end gatherings or thanksgiving dinners. However, they only invited DPP legislative or presidential candidates [as special guests]," Kuo said.
"For example, the Taiwan Cooperative Bank only invited the DPP's legislative candidates to a dinner in Kaohsiung last night [Wednesday]. If it had really been a thanksgiving dinner, why would the bank have only invited candidates from a certain camp?" she said.
Kuo urged the banks "not to spend public funds [on dinners] to campaign for the DPP."
Several KMT legislators, joined by reporters and photographers, rushed into a Taiwan Cooperative Bank thanksgiving dinner in Kaohsiung's Han-Hsien International Hotel on Wednesday night.
The lawmakers confronted bank chairman Hsu Teh-nan (
DPP legislative candidates Pasuya Yao (
Hsu told the KMT legislators that the dinner was being held to help the bank develop relations with customers.
At the press conference, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said the Taiwan Cooperative Bank begun its "campaign dinners" for the DPP in September.
The bank held a dinner at the Cosmos Hotel in Taipei on Sept. 12, which was attended by Presidential Office Secretary-General Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), the secretary-general of DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign office, Ting said.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (
The two banks had violated a resolution passed by the legislature's Finance Committee that bars state-run banks from holding gatherings to campaign for a particular political party, Fai said.
Fai said the caucus will file a lawsuit against the banks for breach of trust, malfeasance and corruption once it collects "enough evidence."
Meanwhile, DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (
"I would regard it [the dinners] as purely a business activity. It is the holiday season and it is natural for people to try to please their customers," Wang said.
"Why do they [the KMT] have to link everything to politics and elections?" he said.
In other developments, Ting accused the National Youth Commission (NYC) yesterday of using public funds to campaign for Frank Hsieh.
Showing the press copies of an e-mail sent by commission Secretary Lai Shih-zhe (
Ting said the e-mail, which referred to NYC Chairwoman Cheng Li-chun (
The NYC rejected the allegations yesterday.
"The commission has nothing to do with it," Chang Chien-wei (張倩瑋), a secretary for Cheng, told the Taipei Times during a telephone interview, citing a statement by Cheng.
"The e-mail was from Lai's personal account. In the copy of the e-mail, you can see that it was sent from a Yahoo account, not from the commission's account," Chang said.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
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