Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday confirmed that he has agreed to head the Executive Yuan’s commission to handle the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ill-gotten assets.
The commission is to be set up under the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), which was passed by the legislature late last month in a vote that was split along party lines.
According to the act, the premier is to appoint 11 to 13 members of the commission, who will be charged with investigating, retroactively confiscating and returning or restoring to rightful owners all assets that were improperly obtained by the KMT and affiliated organizations since Aug. 15, 1945 — when Japan officially announced its surrender to the Allies, bringing World War II to an end.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Koo said he had not anticipated the appointment and had planned to push for several judicial, narcotics and prison reform bills in the legislature, but President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) had expressed their wishes for him to accept it.
“I can only tell you at this time that they said I was the right man for the job. When called on to shoulder such great responsibilities, there is no room for me to say no,” he said.
A commission to deal with illegitimately obtained party properties is “crucial to transitional justice, fair play between the political parties and deepening the nation’s democratization,” he added.
Koo said that as a lawmaker, he had worked hard to help draft the ill-gotten party properties law, and the legislation and the commission tasked with implementing the law were “unprecedented challenges for which it is impossible to ask others for guidance.”
The KMT should “let go of the party assets that are a hindrance to its rebirth,” Koo said, promising to carry out his new job “correctly and within the confines of the law.”
Koo was formerly a partner at Formosa Transnational Attorneys at Law and has served as director of the Taipei Bar Association, chairman of the Judicial Reform Foundation and chairman of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
Sources said that the Presidential Office and the Cabinet believe that Koo’s “mastery of the law, personal integrity and work ethic” would be important qualities for overseeing the effort to recover the private and public assets that the KMT is accused of having obtained during its years of authoritarian rule in Taiwan.
Koo will have to give up his legislator-at-large seat, as the Constitution bars serving lawmakers from concurrently holding a government post.
He will be replaced by former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮), whose name was on the DPP legislator-at-large ballot in the Jan. 16 elections immediately after Koo’s.
However, Kuo’s return to the legislature could renew questions about his arrest in February on a drunk driving charge.
Additional reporting by Yang Chun-hui and CNA
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS