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Annie Lee accuses Ma of copying

"Ma is good at winning women's trust with his good looks, but his ideas are superficial."

Annie Lee, Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator-at-large nominee

Taiwan Solidarity Union nominee for legislator-at-large Annie Lee (李安妮) yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of stealing her women's welfare policy agenda.

"Ma has copied many of my ideas and used them in the white paper on women's welfare that he released on Tuesday," Lee told a news conference at the legislature.

The creating of a governmental gender equality commission and raising women's employment rate, as Ma mentioned in his white paper, "were ideas I proposed in October," she said.

"I would be happy to see Ma follow in my steps, but he has to remember that he is a presidential candidate," Lee said. "How can a presidential candidate copy the policy proposals made by someone who is running for a legislative seat?"

"Ma's white paper [also] didn't make clear how he would put those policies into practice," she said. "Ma is good at winning women's trust with his good looks, but his ideas are superficial."

Ma campaign spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) declined media requests for comment.

Lee, daughter of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), also slammed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for failing to fulfill the promise it had made to women.

"DPP politicians say they are proud of having raised women's participation in politics, but in reality, it has decreased," Annie Lee told the same press conference.

Annie Lee said the percentage of women serving in Cabinet positions had declined.

She said that while 21.4 percent of Cabinet seats were occupied by women in 2000, that number had gradually declined to 12.5 this year.

Annie Lee also criticized the DPP over its promise to boost employment for women.

"The DPP has claimed that on average 100,000 women entered the employment market every year between 2002 and 2005, but government statistics show only an average of 78,000 each year," she said.

"In addition, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) promised to raise the rate of women's labor participation to 50 percent, but there's still a gap," she said.

Numbers provided by Annie Lee showed that the rate of labor participation for women rose from 46 percent in 2000 to 48.6 percent last year.
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