Mon, Mar 13, 2000 page2

• Parties must limit wealth: poll

  LEVEL PLAYING FIELD An alliance for political reform conducted a survey that suggests there is widespread support for limiting the KMT's financial resources

  • By Stephanie Low / STAFF REPORTER
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  A private alliance lobbying for political reform yesterday pressed the five presidential tickets to support a bill banning political parties from operating commercial businesses and engaging in investment activities. It said the bill has won wide popular support in a recent poll.

  The Political Party Law, which had originally been set to be passed in February, is basically aimed at the KMT -- the only political party in Taiwan that runs commercial businesses and owns billions of dollars in assets.

  It was stalled, however, because of wide differences between the KMT and DPP over what role political parties should play in commercial enterprises, and how KMT's assets should be dealt with. The DPP's stance on the bill is based on a proposal raised by the alliance.

  "There isn't anything comparable to the huge assets accumulated by the KMT over the past decades, and this has impeded the sound development of democracy, a market economy and social justice," said Tsai Tun-ming (蔡墩銘), chairman of the alliance and a law professor from the National Taiwan University.

  The alliance consists of lawyers, accountants and private groups including the Taiwan Law Society (台灣法學會) and the pro-independence Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP, 台灣教授協會).

  In an attempt to boost the cogency of its claims, the alliance conducted a poll with 1,075 valid samples on March 8 and 9.

  The survey showed that 68.7 percent of the people support the argument that the ruling party tends to make easy money through its investments because it has policy-making power and maintains a close relationship with commercial interests. Those who disagree constituted 11.5 percent, and 19.8 percent of the people polled did not respond to the question.

  While 49.7 percent of people are for expressly forbidding political parties from either investing in or operating commercial business, 28.8 percent are against the proposal. The remaining 21.4 percent did not respond.

  The KMT has maintained that investment should be allowed as long as political parties do not operate businesses directly.

  In another proposal that has also generated controversy, the DPP and the alliance have proposed setting up an independent committee to investigate and handle the KMT's assets, which they allege were mostly obtained through illegal and inappropriate methods during the martial law era.

  The DPP and the alliance have insisted that no party should possess assets worth more than NT$3 billion. This is to ensure a level playing field in politics.

  The KMT, however, has argued that it has legal ownership of all its assets and thus should have total freedom to do with them as they wish.

  As shown in the survey, 61.8 percent of the interviewees support setting a maximum worth on the assets that a party is allowed to possess. While 21.3 percent disagree, the other 16.8 percent did not respond.

  Meanwhile, 69.4 percent of the people are for setting up an independent committee to deal with the KMT's assets, 12.2 percent are against the idea, and 18.4 percent did not respond.

  The alliance plans to have all the presidential candidates respond to the claims before the vote on March 18.

  "We hope whoever wins the presidency will support this piece of legislation," said TAUP President Hwang Tzong-leh (黃宗樂).

  The legislature is expected to continue its review of the Political Party Law when it reopens after the presidential election.
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