Several of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local party offices illegally occupy Aboriginal reserved land, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) said yesterday, calling for the Council of Indigenous Peoples to take legal action to force the KMT offices to move.
At a news conference at the legislature in Taipei, Chen said that five KMT branch headquarters in the Pingtung and Nantou counties violate national regulations.
“The KMT’s use of these spaces for party activities contravenes the regulations on reserved land,” she said, adding that the regulations ban party offices.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“Reserved land is supposed to be for Aboriginal communities and our needs, but the KMT in the past has taken advantage of its closely bound relationship with the government to occupy this land for itself,” she said.
The five party headquarters in total encompass about 2,346m2, with some overlap between party headquarters and facilities run by local governments.
Chen cited the KMT office in Nantou’s Renai (仁愛) Township as particularly egregious, saying the site had been occupied by the KMT at no cost for at least 26 years.
“It is actually located at the same address as the township’s library, making it a symbol of how the local government and party are not separated,” she said, brandishing photographs showing the front of the library’s address festooned with posters for KMT candidates during last year’s election, while accusing the township government of turning a blind eye.
The KMT branch office in Pingtung County’s Chunri (春日) Township is another example of unclear boundaries, she said, adding that the site also serves as the township’s gallery for displaying Aboriginal artifacts.
“Given this, how can you be sure that the funding which the township pours into the facility is for the gallery, rather than the KMT party headquarters,” she said, calling the arrangements “outrageous” and “a huge joke.”
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