A campaign official for independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Soong kept a low profile yesterday, but one of his campaign officials, who asked to remain anonymous, put forth a new story about how Soong used part of the NT$ 140 million that mysteriously wound up in bank accounts belonging to his son and sister-in-law.
The official said that seven years ago, Lee had to seek assistance from opposition parties -- especially the DPP -- to help push for democratic reforms.
Lee, according to the Soong campaign official, had once declared a "party competition theory" in a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, saying the KMT should feed opposition parties with some "milk" to help them grow strong.
The logic behind this scheme was that Taiwan would then witness the emergence of a mature multi-party political system, the official said.
"So the purpose of the NT$140 million included taking care of former President Chiang Ching-kuo's (蔣經國) family members and building a relationship with DPP leaders," the official said.
But the DPP leaders immediately disputed this explanation, saying Soong's strategy was to confuse voters by pulling all of his rivals into the scandal.
"Soong knows that people will not believe what he said on Tuesday about using the NT$140 million to take care of Chiang's family," DPP legislature caucus leader Chen Chi-mai (
"Therefore, Soong resorts to a smear campaign by accusing other candidates," Chen said.
DPP lawmaker Chang Chung-hung (
"How did Soong get that money from the KMT? And is there any other dirty money in Soong's personal bank accounts? Soong should tell people the truth, and not continually cover up the facts," Chang said.
DPP Organization Development Department director Jimmy Kuo (
Four polls released yesterday indicated that Soong's support ratings fell to between 24 and 29 percent, while DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian's (
Lawmakers who helped Soong in his signature drive admitted yesterday that support for their candidate was eroding with alarming speed.
"We found that some supporters may have lost their confidence in Soong, especially in central and south Taiwan," said Liu Wen-hsiung (
Meanwhile, the KMT's presidential candidate, Lien Chan (3s戰), said the money scandal is a legal question and should be resolved through the legal process.
Chen Shui-bian said that if he is elected, he would investigate KMT-run businesses and assets and return to the people what belongs to them.
"This scandal between Soong and the KMT has shown that the NT$140 million is only a small part of the KMT's `black-gold' regime," Chen said.
"If I am elected, I will initiate a law to ban all party-run busi-nesses," he said.
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