The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday hit back at Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) recent remark accusing former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) presidency of “burdening” the nation’s political culture with corruption and gangsters, saying that its real source was the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) stolen assets.
The KMT’s massive ill-gotten assets are the most serious malignant tumor on Taiwan’s democratic development, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Chen said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has several times broken his promises to rid the party of the assets the KMT stole during the Martial Law era.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Chen said Ma first made the pledge when he assumed the KMT chairmanship in 2005, adding that Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who succeeded Ma as the party’s chairman in 2007, also made similar promises, but nothing was done.
Chen said the KMT sold the building housing the Policy Research and Development Department and three media assets — China Television Co, Broadcasting Corporation of China and the Central Motion Picture Co — in 2005 and its former headquarters, properties worth more than NT$25 billion (US$869.5 million).
He said the KMT used the money from selling those properties to support KMT candidates in various elections. Chen added that based on his understanding, KMT Legislator Lee Fu-hsing (李復興) received NT$8.1 million from the party when he ran for his seat in Kaohsiung four years ago. If most KMT legislative candidates received funds from the party headquarters as Lee did, the party would have spent more than NT$500 million in the legislative elections, Chen said.
“Can the party really say that money is unrelated to its assets?” Chen asked.
He added that former KMT legislators Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), Chiang Lien-fu (江連福), Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) and Lee E-tin (李乙廷) had their elections annulled by courts for vote buying charges.
“Where was that money from [for vote-buying]?” Chen asked.
Saying there were also cases of KMT politicians probed for ties with gangsters, Chen said that these incidents suggested the KMT is rife with corruption and gangsterism.
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