President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) promise to clean up Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) assets to transform the KMT into a clean party could be empty words as the problems of illicit party assets, election bribery and factional infighting continue to cloud the party, analysts said.
Ma took over for the second time as KMT chairman at the party’s 18th national convention yesterday morning. He promised to deal with party assets and reexamine the role of local factions in an effort to clean up the KMT’s “black gold” image.
Critics, however, cast doubts on Ma’s ability to clean up the KMT because he failed to fulfill the same goal when he served as party chairman in 2005.
Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰), a political critic and a professor from National Taipei University, said the KMT had a long history of engaging in election bribery, embezzling money from the government and acting against democracy, and it would be difficult for Ma to eliminate his party’s culture of “black gold.”
“The KMT has counted on organized crime and local factions to operate and win elections. It would be almost impossible for Ma to eradicate black gold and risk losing major elections,” he said.
National Chengchi University political science professor Ku Chung-hua (顧忠華) said Ma already failed on his first attempt to solve the issue of illicit party assets, and it will cost him public support if he fails to fulfill the promise again.
Ma served as KMT party chairman in 2005, but stepped down in 2006 over allegedly embezzling a special allowance fund during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The Taipei District Court found him not guilty in 2007.
Cleaning up party assets was a major goal for Ma when he took over as KMT chairman in 2005 after he pledged to make the party “asset-free.”
The KMT started unloading its illicit assets later that year, selling the building housing the Institute on Policy Research and Development for NT$4.3 billion (US$133.6 million) and three media assets — the China Television Co (CTV), the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) and the Central Motion Picture Co (CMPC) — to the China Times Group for NT$9.3 billion.
Ma, however, failed to sell the Central Investment Co (中央投資公司), which is valued at more than NT$20 billion, during his one-year term. The Democratic Progressive Party challenged the KMT for rushing those sales at lower prices in exchange for cash to pay for election campaigns and for the lack of transparency during the process.
Ku acknowledged Ma’s efforts to clean up party assets, but said just getting rid of the assets would not convince the public because of the messy dealings related to the sale of CMPC, BCC and CTV, while details on what happened to the huge sums of money made from these asset sales have been carefully concealed.
Ma had said the party would pay off debts and put the rest of the money from the transactions into pensions for retired workers. However, in 2006, the year after the party sold the assets for more than NT$13 billion, the KMT claimed it had spent all the money and could not even pay party workers’ year-end bonuses.
Placating the party’s old guard and overhauling its local factions, as well as its decision-making bodies headed by the central standing committee, are also daunting for Ma’s party reform attempts, he said.
Ku said recent bribery allegations at the party’s central standing committee election and alleged under-the-table deals in the Taitung County commissioner election put Ma in an embarrassing position as the party continues to rely on vote-buying and influence peddling among local factions in elections.
The party elected 32 central standing committee members last week amid allegations of bribery. The KMT promised to annul the election of any member found guilty of bribing voters, but no actions have been made. As to the Taitung County commissioner election, the party’s nominee Justin Huang (黃健庭) resigned as KMT legislator last week to focus on the upcoming battle.
It is speculated, however, that the KMT made an under-the-table deal with Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) when it dissuaded her from running for re-election by promising to nominate her or her ex-husband, former Taitung County commissioner Wu Chun-li (吳俊立), for the legislative by-election.
“It’s like a slap in the face for Ma. It is extremely difficult to bring fundamental change to the party when he has to count on local factions to win the year-end elections,” Ku said.
The party is also scrambling to deal with splits in Yunlin, Hualien, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Nantou and Kinmen.
“Ma will make some compromises because no party can afford to lose the elections,” Lee said.
Wang Kun-yi (王崑義), a professor at National Taiwan Ocean University, said Ma also doubled as KMT chairman to facilitate the implementation of his cross-strait policies.
The Ma administration could become authoritarian and push through cross-strait policies without supervision if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fails to keep the KMT’s performance in check, Wang said.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS