The Cabinet yesterday approved three much-anticipated political reform bills, but came under scathing criticism for loosening its stance on the regulation of political party investment activities.
The Political Party Law, the Lobby Law, and bills on political fund contributions have all been drawn up by the interior and justice ministries in one month, in quick response to a call for political reform by vice president and KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (
Lien said on January 2 that the KMT would put its business empire "in trust" if he was elected, and it would carry out other political reforms to ensure cleaner politics and a leveling of the political playing field.
But when the final version of the political party bill, drafted by the interior ministry, was approved yesterday, an article stipulating that political parties "should neither invest in nor operate" commercial businesses was diluted to "should not operate" commercial businesses -- leaving investment permissible.
Government spokesman Chao Yi (
The KMT is the only party in Taiwan that owns and runs a huge commercial business empire, with its assets estimated at between NT$200 billion and NT$500 billion.
Analysts were quick to respond yesterday, saying that the reworking of the bill's language was bad not only for political reform, but also defeated the KMT's original purpose in proposing the legislation: to improve its image in the run-up to the presidential election.
"A retraction like this is worse than not proposing to write such a law in the first place," said Wu Tung-yeh (
Lin Chia-lung (
"Even if it can't run businesses directly, it's easy for the ruling party to make money through investment. After all, they have the inside track to government policies."
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