Thu, Sep 14, 2000 page3

• DPP hits back over surveillance allegations

  MONITORING DISPUTE The vice president said that the KMT should admit to its own intelligence abuses before it even thinks of pointing a finger at the president

  • By Lin Chieh-yu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Presidential Office and the DPP yesterday fought back forcefully against opposition accusations that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration has used the state security apparatus to carry out surveillance on senior political opponents.

  They said that members of the old government who had participated in the persecution of former political dissidents and the democracy movement should admit their own crimes and apologize to the public before accusing others of carrying out surveillance on politicians.

  The KMT and People First Party (PFP) have both severely criticized the new government recently for allegedly misusing the intelligence services to pursue so-called "political investigations" (政治偵防) targeted at senior figures within the the KMT and PFP.

  Addressing a luncheon meeting with business leaders yesterday, however, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said that she had suffered as a result of the old government's methods of "political investigation" over the past decades and that it was "preposterous" to see the former persecutors now claiming to be persecuted.

  "Those who controlled the intelligence services to bolster their own power under the old government have no right to clamor now," Lu said.

  "They can't pretend never to have committed those crimes in the past just because they've lost power," she said.

  DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) also told reporters after a luncheon with President Chen that the president had stressed that he had never ordered the surveillance of anyone.

  "Only under DPP rule can the government start to bring the country's intelligence services under the operation of a unified system," Hsieh reported Chen as saying.

  "I don't have any background in intelligence work. How could I get intelligence agents to serve my personal interests?" Chen is reported by Hsieh to have remarked.

  Hsieh said that he warned the president to be careful not to "alienate" (異化) the intelligence services.

  "The intelligence services could seek to strengthen their power under the pretext of maintaining national security and ultimately go as far as trying to control the country," Hsieh said. "So I asked the president whether he worried about being monitored. He told me that he was not concerned."

  Hsieh said that the government should carry out a review of national security, which, he said, it was entitled to do under current law although in his view further regulation was required to set the parameters for an effective review.

  "The DPP has reached a consensus with the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan that we will revise all the related laws in the Legislative Yuan in order to define the limits of authority of the intelligence services," Hsieh said.

  "The principles are that the armed services should remain separate from the intelligence system (軍情分立), public security should remain separate from intelligence work (情報和治安分立), and that the Legislative Yuan should establish appropriate regulations to supervise the intelligence services," Hsieh said.

  A close aide of the president, Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), secretary of the Presidential Office, yesterday also told reporters that the Presidential Office received documents every day from the intelligence services including the National Security Bureau (NSB), the National Police Administration (NPA) and Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB), but he said that these documents related exclusively to financial information (such as exchange rates), stock market fluctuations, national security (including Chinese military exercises), and foreign affairs.

  "These files are absolutely not the so-called National Security Daily' [國安日報], of opposition party nomenclature," said Ma. "They contain information about criminal investigations, which by no means amount to political investigations of any particular person or political party."

  Ma stressed that Chen had not instructed any government department to monitor either the Taipei City Government or Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

  "None of those reports or documents relates to the Taipei City Government," Ma Yung-cheng said.

  He said that the president should be informed as a matter of urgency of anything that might affect Taiwan's national security and that the NSB was detailed to brief the president weekly.

  "This information may include the fact that farmers complain of inadequate distribution systems for the sale of farm produce or even criticisms from local politicians of local government abuses," Ma said. "But there is no need for the public and opposition parties to overreact."

  Meanwhile, Mayor Ma yesterday once again urged Chen to declare publicly the new government's determination to stop "political surveillance."

  "The reason that KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) postponed the round table meeting with Chen is that the DPP government has misused the intelligent services to monitor opposition parties," Ma said.

  "And the explanation by the Presidential Office about whether they carried out political investigations is for the moment still unclear," Ma added.
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