President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) eldest sister plans to sue Next Magazine over allegations she had used her influence to persuade a university chairman to hire her brother-in-law as school chancellor and to demand that a senior citizens’ house provide around-the-clock care for her mother-in-law.
Ma Yi-nan (馬以南) has entrusted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor and lawyer Lai Su-ju (賴素如) to handle her case, Lai said yesterday.
Lai said her client told her it was a “false report” and decided to take legal action against the magazine to protect her reputation.
The weekly’s latest issue, available yesterday, claimed Ma Yi-nan earlier this month pressured the chairman of Minghsin University of Science and Technology (MUST), through Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基), hoping the chairman would hire her brother-in-law, Feng Dan-pai (馮丹白) — dean of National Taiwan Normal University’s College of Technology — as MUST chancellor.
The magazine also alleged Ma Yi-nan abused her power by placing her mother-in-law into Chao-ju — a famous nursing home located in the mountains near National Chengchi University — shortly after Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008.
Anyone over the age of 65 who has registered their household with the city for more than four months and can take care of their daily life is eligible to file an application, the home’s regulations say.
The report alleged Ma Yi-nan called Taipei City Department of Social Welfare Commissioner Shih Yu-ling (師豫玲) in a bid to secure a room for her mother-in-law and even asked the home to assign three foreign caregivers to assist her mother-in-law — in her 90s — around the clock.
The report said the city’s Department of Labor made surprise inspections of the home on June 3 and June 25, after receiving reports of a violation regarding the foreign caregivers.
The home later passed on the information to Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) through some of his close friends and urged his office to stop any similar incidents from occurring, the report said.
Lai yesterday said Feng was recently elected the new MUST chancellor, but added her client did not use her influence in any form to sway Wu.
As for the other allegation, Lai said Ma Yi-nan’s mother-in-law began staying at the nursing facility in 2003 — long before the presidential election. Lai said her client never meddled in the allocation of manpower at the facility nor made any special requests.
Without double-checking the time, place and people involved, Lai said the magazine risked committing libel and violating journalistic ethics and professionalism by publishing such a false report.
Hau, the Taipei City Government and the Ministry of Education also rejected the report.
“This is absolutely untrue. President Ma has never mentioned anything related to his sister’s mother-in-law to me, either,” Hau said when asked for comment.
Shih said the department never received phone calls from Ma Yi-nan to hire foreign caregivers or to offer 24-hour service for her mother-in-law. Shih also defended Ma Yi-nan’s right to hire foreign caretakers since the nursing home was run by a private business.
Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀), director of the ministry’s Department of Technological and Vocational Education, said Wu, who is currently on an inspection trip in Vietnam, was very upset at the report.
Lee said Wu had never intervened in the university’s chancellor selection process nor had he had any contact with Ma Yi-nan.
Next Magazine said it respected the right of Ma Yi-nan to file a lawsuit over the report.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
RSS