A foundation for senior citizens reportedly affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has occupied an Aboriginal reserve in Hsinchu County’s Wufeng Township (五峰) and used government funds to control the township’s electorate, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) said yesterday.
The foundation has occupied part of the Wufeng Township Office building and received NT$2.89 million (US$91,409 at the current exchange rate) from the Council of Indigenous Peoples over the past five years to fund long-term care services for older Aborigines, she said.
The KMT chapter in the township is based in the same building, which also houses other organizations apparently affiliated with the party, including a women’s club and a citizens’ service center.
Local elected representatives of the party and KMT Wufeng chapter officials have assumed leadership positions at the foundation, and the foundation’s director was a KMT candidate for township mayor, which suggests that the foundation is a KMT-affiliated organization, Chen said.
The women’s club and the citizen’s service center — traditional networking organizations of the KMT — also received government funds for welfare services, she added.
Chen asked whether the funds the organizations received really went toward services for senior citizens, or if they were diverted to developing a political network.
The council uses revenue from the state lottery to fund services for older Aborigines, with a maximum annual allowance of NT$578,000 for each foundation or day care center, which are also eligible for local government subsidies, she said.
The allowance is to be increased to NT$2.8 million per foundation next year, when the Cabinet’s “long-term care services program 2.0” is to be launched, making it necessary to oversee the management of those foundations, Chen said.
“This is the ninth case of a KMT local chapter occupying Aboriginal land. Public resources cannot be used for political purposes,” she said.
Earlier this month, Chen accused the KMT of establishing local chapters on Aboriginal reserves without authorization, with the other eight in Taoyuan’s Fuhsing Township (復興); Taitung County’s Lanyu Township (蘭嶼); Pingtung County’s Laiyi (來義), Shihtzu (獅子), Chunri (春日) and Sandimen (三地門) townships; and Nantou County’s Sinyi (信義) and Renai (仁愛) townships, which cover a combined area of more than 1,000 ping (3,306m2).
The council said that the KMT has rented the Wufeng building from the township office, but added that the building is an illegal structure, because it occupies Aboriginal land without authorization.
The council said it would order the office to apply to use the property and cancel the KMT’s rental contract, because state-owned Aboriginal land can only be used for public purposes.
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