A review of proposed bills on the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ill-gotten party assets is scheduled to begin at the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee meeting today, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) committee convener Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) arranging for proposals from both the DPP and the KMT to be discussed.
In addition to the DPP’s draft bill for handling illegitimate political party assets, the KMT has also proposed a bill on the supervision and management of political party properties.
Having decided to review both proposals during today’s meeting, Chen said that it is an important issue concerning transitional justice and that he would ask the committee to carefully discuss both proposals without prejudice.
In addition to members of the Internal Administration Committee, lawmakers from the Finance and Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes committees are also expected to attend the meeting.
Although DPP legislators have six proposals for the party assets legislation, the differences among them are minimal, and all versions are focused on setting up committees to investigate and deal with party assets.
Officials from the Ministry of the Interior have also been invited to make a presentation at today’s meeting, which is to be followed by a question-and-answer session.
Several public hearings are also expected to follow the meeting, giving academics and experts an opportunity to explore the proposals and collect opinions before making a clause-by-clause review.
Representatives from the KMT’s Administration Committee and Central Investment Holdings Co (中央公司), as well as KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), are also expected to clarify disputes surrounding the party assets issue, Chen said.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) said that the caucus would follow the legal procedure of the committee and be actively involved in discussions without special requests. However, Lin said that the DPP’s draft bills obviously target the KMT and therefore they are hard for the party to accept.
“What are we afraid of?” Lin said, adding that the KMT could donate all its assets.
He said that the KMT is willing to be checked, but since the DPP has also been in power before, it should also be checked to see if the money that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) obtained from corruption has gone into the DPP or foundations set up by DPP officials.
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