A number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators criticized former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) yesterday over Lee’s remark that local enterprises offered more money to the KMT’s presidential candidates than they did to those from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) called Lee’s remark “ridiculous” and “pointless.”
“[The remark shows] he did not deserve the Nobel Prize [in chemistry] and he failed Taiwan and its people,” Wu said.
ETTV reported on Saturday night that Lee was disappointed with former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), whom Lee endorsed during the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004.
“I am disappointed by him and society as a whole. We have a very bad electoral system. Local businesses have given so much money to presidential candidates from not only the DPP but also the KMT, which might have taken even more donations,” Lee was quoted as saying. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Although it seems that [former] president Chen did something wrong, there are many other things that were wrong in our society. So you [the media] should not target only [former] president Chen.”
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said she was “dumbfounded” by Lee’s remark, while KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) questioned Lee’s logic.
“Such reasoning only shows how narrow-minded he is,” Shuai said.
Lee has been widely criticized by the pan-blue camp since he publicly voiced his support for Chen ahead of the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004.
Despite the criticism, Lee said on Saturday: “Many people might not be able to forgive a lot of things he [Chen] did, but [leave it to] the court to make a final ruling.”
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