Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien yesterday lauded President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) handling of allegations of influence-peddling surrounding Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Wang Jin-pyng is accused by the Special Investigations Division (SID) of taking legal pressure off Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) by allegedly peddling his influence with former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), High Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) and High Prosecutors’ Office prosecutor Lin Shiow-tao (林秀濤).
Wang Chien-shien said that despite the fact that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators comprise about three-quarters, or 84 members of the total of 113 seats of the Legislative Yuan, the party was still being held in a choke-hold by DPP members.
The KMT had accomplished nothing from 2008 to last year and “Wang Jin-pyng’s tact in dealing with people, his preference for negotiation, was the reason, Wang Chien-shien said.
“He should have stepped down long ago and apologized to both the party and the nation,” Wang Chien-shien said.
He added said that Wang Jin-pyng was unfit for the role of legislative speaker.
What people see almost every day is legislators fighting each other, taking over the podium, negotiating, but they do not get anything done, except maybe fighting and counting how many fists are backing you, Wang Chien-shien said, pointing to the cross-strait trade services agreement as an example of how the opposition party was tying up legislative procedure.
There is a reason why the Legislative Yuan had been said to be among the worst congressional entities in the world, Wang Chien-shien said, adding that the legislative speaker had to take some responsibility for what the Legislative Yuan had become.
“Ma has been pushed to the edge because the party in majority is actually being dominated by the minority,” Wang Chien-shien said, adding that Ma had done the right thing.
“Ma was the perfect little lamb; he always has been, and we called him on in, saying that he had no guts, no courage; he’s really brave by tackling the issue the way he has, it is not how we normal people would handle things,” Wang Chien-shien said, adding: “If this case gets overturned and Wang continues as legislative speaker, Ma should just announce that he is stepping down.”
Wang Jin-pyng would of course feel some regret that his political career has maybe come to an end, “but if such regrets come back to haunt the nation in the form of political struggle, it would be something that betrays the Taiwanese,” Wang Chien-shien said.
It is only normal for Wang Jin-pyng’s friends, both personal and political, to feel that he has been wronged, but “they should consider how our progeny, and our forebears, would look upon them if they were the fount of unrest in the legislature, or even the nation,” Wang Chien-shien said.
Some may feel that the Legislative Yuan without Wang Jin-pyng would be even more chaotic than ever, but Wang Chien-shien said that no one was 100 percent indispensable.
“We’ve weathered the passing of [former] presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國); there were mutters then that things would be bad, but we are still here,” Wang Chien-shien said.
If Wang Jin-pyng feels that he is indispensable to legislature, and even harbors the hope that the legislature would become bogged down with differences just to show his own importance, “then he is unfit to bear the surname Wang,” Wang Chien-shien said.
Commenting on the DPP’s response to the whole matter — lambasting Ma, calling off the planned debate on the cross-strait trade services agreement and being protective of Ker — Wang Chien-shien said that the public should feel sad to have an opposition party like the DPP.
The SID has also done well, and Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) should be lauded for a job well done, Wang Chien-shien said.
The Ministry of Finance this afternoon announced the winning numbers for the March-April uniform invoice lottery. The winning number for the NT$10 million (US$318,060) special prize is 19531471, and the winning number for the NT$2 million grand prize is 85941329. Three numbers were drawn for the NT$200,000 first prize: 07225810, 20231230 and 83518781. Those with receipts matching the last seven digits of any of the first-prize numbers will win the NT$40,000 second prize, while those matching the last six digits will win the NT$10,000 third prize. Those whose receipts match the last five digits of the first-prize numbers can claim the NT$4,000 fourth prize,
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