President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday pledged to devote full efforts to fighting corruption in the wake of former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih’s (林益世) corruption scandal, demanding that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials and government bodies obtain integrity and build a clean government.
Raising Lin’s case at the KMT’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting, Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, called on prosecutors to uncover the truth in their investigation.
“No matter how many people are involved in the case and how high the levels of the involved officials, we are asking the prosecutors to conduct their investigations without making any exceptions and compromises,” he said.
Ma’s comments came amid complaints about his alleged interference in the Cabinet’s appointments by placing Lin in the Cabinet in February despite his defeat in January’s legislative elections.
Ma expressed regret over Lin’s corruption case on Monday, while the opposition urged him to take full responsibility for the fallout.
Ma yesterday acknowledged the case has sparked a crisis for his administration and urged both the KMT and the administrative branch to turn the crisis into an opportunity for anti-corruption efforts.
“The administrative branch and all government bodies should try hard to examine themselves carefully and take the opportunity to remove any tumors of corruption. We should continue the effort to build a clean government and be devoted to defending integrity,” he said.
Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) also expressed regret over Lin’s case and said the judiciary would remain independent in handling the investigation.
“As Lin’s former colleague, I was in shock when learning about the news ... The Special Investigation Division’s handling of the case shows that our judicial system is independent, and we expect the investigation will uncover the truth as soon as possible,” he said.
Forty-four high-ranking officials — ministers, deputy ministers, ministers without portfolio and spokespersons for every government agency — are required to attend a meeting about “ethics directions and fighting graft” on Saturday, the Executive Yuan’s spokesman office said in a statement.
Ma and Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) will address the participants.
Ma is to emphasize the importance of actions taken to stamp out corruption and demand politically appointees observe the principle of cleanliness, the statement said, adding that “do not under any circumstances get involved in bribery” would be Ma’s instruction.
The meeting, to be hosted by the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption, is intended to educate officials on the code of conduct governing acceptance of gifts, hospitality and other benefits, the statement said. Prosecutors will explain rules and regulations to the officials.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,