Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) yesterday confirmed the existence of a “PK team” that had reportedly been set up at the order of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to have KMT lawmakers help the party’s campaign efforts for the nine-in-one elections.
Fai, who questioned National Audit Office Auditor-General, Lin Ching-long (林慶隆), on Thursday on the MG149 account controversy that involves independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and threatened to shelve the agency’s budget, said yesterday that the PK team is not aimed at Ko.
“PK” stands for “player killer” and is an online gaming term for players who hunt rivals’ virtual characters to kill them, rather than collaborate with others to solve missions or try to defeat non-player characters in a game.
The term colloquially refers to any one-on-one showdown. Some sources said the term could refer to “penalty kick,” a soccer term.
“The PK team is established by the party caucus whenever there are major events or decisions to be made, and the team collects relevant information and reports it to the public. The mechanism has been in operation for years,” Fai said.
He said he sent out requests to KMT legislators more than a month ago seeking those interested in joining it.
“It is not targeting MG149, which is a small case,” Fai said, adding that the team is also for investigating recent issues such as the tainted cooking oil scandal and the Greater Kaohsiung gas pipeline explosions.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who ignited the MG149 dispute early last month by accusing Ko of corruption via the shared MG149 bank account — a public account for National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) surgical intensive care unit — while serving as its head, said she was glad “that the party caucus has finally realized that MG149 is problematic.”
“At first, only I saw the problem, but now the fact is gradually unveiling itself. With the party caucus [involved], we can make Taipei residents understand that the MG149 account is truly flawed,” Lo said.
To Ko’s call for the KMT not to attack NTUH and national medical research for political purposes, Lo said, “You asked people not to attack it, but you are hurting the institution; do not drag NTUH into this.”
“I suggest that Ko does not hurt NTUH’s academic spirit through his illegal actions,” she added.
Lo said she would attend the legislature’s committee meeting next week, which requires NTUH superintendent Huang Guan-tarn (黃冠棠) to attend, to question him.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
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