Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday accused the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee of having deviated from its goal of promoting transitional justice, calling the committee’s actions “horrible” and “not befitting a normal, democratic nation.”
Ma made the remarks at the launch of the Taipei campaign headquarters of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is running for party chairman.
Ma appeared to endorse KMT Vice Chairman Jason Hu (胡志強) as Hau’s running mate, saying the pair would “make a good team.”
After declaring his support for the two, Ma dedicated the rest of his speech to the assets committee, saying it has increasingly strayed from its founding principle of pursuing transitional justice and accused it of violating the rule of law.
Ma said that under German theories of the rule of law there should be no assumption of guilt in the absence of proof, but the party assets committee has assumed that the bulk of the KMT’s assets obtained since Aug. 15, 1944, are illegitimate.
Taiwan has had six direct presidential elections and three transfers of power, and is widely acknowledged as a democratic state by the international community, he said.
Ma added that when he was elected president in 2008, then-US president George W. Bush praised Taiwan as a beacon of democracy in Asia, and Taiwan had since then ranked well in Freedom House’s Freedom in the World reports.
“Do we need to conduct a deep re-evaluation of the nation like South Africa, post-Word War II Germany and Germany after unification did?” Ma asked.
“I do not see the need,” he added.
Asked about Ma’s comments, assets committee member Lien Li-jen (連立堅) said: “Ma must have been a poor student at school.”
When Germany implemented transitional justice, its legal system followed the principle of substantive rule of law that demanded individuals and political organizations prove their properties were legitimately obtained, Lien said.
During Ma’s term as minister of justice, the justice ministry in 2002 cited Germany’s experience in an opinion regarding the bill that latter became 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), he said.
“That Ma is not familiar with the affairs of his ministry showed he was not serious about his job,” Lien said.
Additional reporting by Yang Chun-hui
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it