In his inaugural speech last year as he took up the post of chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for the second time, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he would draw up a plan for disposing of the party’s assets by the end of the year. On Dec. 30, the KMT’s Central Standing Committee passed a final plan for disposing of party-run businesses.
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China (ROC). It would be a great 100th birthday present from Ma, as president, if this year could be the one in which the last vestiges of the party-state — the KMT party’s assets — could be eliminated, clearing the party assets issue forever from Taiwan’s political scene.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was the first chairman in the history of the KMT who tried to cast light on the party’s vast but shadowy assets. At the time, he was both president and party chairman, and he took advantage of his position to tie the party’s assets up closely with politics and elections. This left a legacy not in keeping with democratic norms. Lee also made many convoluted uses of party assets combined with national resources and institutional operations.
In 1996, Lee, acting through the National Development Council and gaining the approval of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Party, arrived at his “four nots” policy — KMT controlled institutions would not run monopoly enterprises, take on public works projects, bid for government purchase tenders or invest in China. The policy represented Lee’s final position on the KMT’s assets, but later it crumbled under the impact of changing realities.
In 2000, Lien Chan (連戰) was nominated presidential candidate for the KMT. In response to investigation and criticism over the party assets issue by the DPP, Lien for the first time proposed that the KMT should cease involvement in profit-generating enterprises and place all such companies into trust.
Lee once posed the question: “If the KMT has no profitable enterprises, how can it develop?”
In the light of Lee’s comment, Lien’s proposal could be considered a big step forward. After becoming party chairman, Lien came under pressure from the Control Yuan after an investigation into the KMT’s assets in which I played a leading role. About a year later, Lien formally announced that, based on what he called “high ethical principles,” the KMT would “donate back” its assets to those institutions that donated them in the first place, make donations of its own accord or dispose of them according to the regulations.
During his first term as party chairman, Ma moved the party headquarters from the location facing the Presidential Office that it had occupied for several decades, and which many saw as a symbol of authoritarian rule, to its present location on Bade Road. Ma was the first KMT chairman to express his willingness to face up to and humbly reappraise the party’s past. He offered to account for the KMT’s assets and promised to dispose of them entirely before the end of 2008.
During the year and a bit after Ma resigned from the post of KMT chairman and was elected president, this promise was not fulfilled. So, when Ma was elected chairman a second time, he was faced not only with the task of proposing a plan for the final disposal of the party’s assets, but also the need to set a clear deadline for doing so.
In the meantime, the KMT passed a plan for the final disposal of its party-run enterprises, but it does not cover the entire task of disposing of all party assets, because they include more than just the companies it operates. It is true, though, that the central task of asset disposal at present is dealing with those companies in which the KMT has a stake through its investment arm, the Central Investment Holding Company.
Over the past two decades, there has been an unprecedented movement calling for the KMT’s assets to be dealt with. It is a movement that spans academia, the legislature, courts of law and social movements. It is a movement that crosses the lines of party affiliation, class, gender and age, and it is one based on a desire for social justice and a real democracy in which different political parties can compete on a level playing field. Now that the KMT party assets issue is nearing a conclusion, Ma has a responsibility to seize the historic opportunity and complete three tasks.
First, considering the KMT assets still have a lure akin to the “Rings of Power” in Lord of the Rings, Ma must show strong will and determination to resist pressures and delaying tactics from within the KMT. He must act to resolve the assets issue for once and for all.
Second, given that the fulfillment of Ma’s promise has been delayed for more than a year, and in the light of the recent series of electoral setbacks suffered by the KMT, the party assets issue cannot be fudged any longer. The Central Investment Holding Company should be wound up and those parts of the Control Yuan’s report on the KMT’s assets that have not yet been dealt with resolved, within a year at most, sooner if possible. Only by doing this can Ma demonstrate his sincerity in putting an end to the party assets issue and his determination to vigorously pursue reform.
The third point is how the remaining assets should be used. In the course of pushing for disposal of the KMT’s assets over the years, the most resounding slogan has been: “Give the property back to the people.” As Ma moves to finally dispose of the assets, it is reasonable that a certain amount should be retained for paying pensions to retired KMT employees. Beyond that, the remainder should be donated to charitable causes and the amount given should not be too miserly. Only then will the public feel a degree of satisfaction and closure.
Huang Huang-hsiung is a member of the Control Yuan and founder of the Taiwan Research Fund.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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