Premier Yu Shyi-kun unleashed a tirade yesterday against People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), the opposition camp's vice presidential candidate, accusing him of "dirty tricks" while serving as provincial governor.
"He [Soong] keeps slandering me and my Cabinet colleagues for poorly executing government policies and wasting taxpayers' money in exchange for grassroots support for next year's presidential poll. The fact is, however, he's the one who did all the dirty tricks, not me," Yu said.
Yu made the comments ahead of a board meeting of an association based in his hometown of Ilan County yesterday.
Despite doing a poor job managing the nation during his five-year term as the Taiwan provincial governor between 1993 and 1998, Yu said that Soong made the media believe he had done a lot for the people.
"We found out that the so-called achievements Soong claimed during his stint turned out to be nothing but a big lie and a dirty trick," Yu said.
"As the highest administrative officer in the nation, I'm now forced to wipe his ass after he had done so little to realize his empty promises," he said.
Citing the example of transportation projects in Ilan County, Yu said the expansion of the No. 9 provincial highway linking Toucheng and Suao was not completed in 1997 as promised.
Yu served as Ilan County commissioner from 1989 to 1997.
"One of the reasonable explanations for the six-year delay I can think of is that the provincial government misappropriated funds to crowd out the government's plan," Yu said.
Yu cited another example to attack Soong's record.
"A township in Ilan had requested funding of NT$5 million from the provincial government but was later granted NT$40 million," Yu said. "I'm not saying that the [provincial] government shouldn't grant local governments more than they asked for, but it shouldn't have wasted tax dollars like this," he said.
Yu encouraged the media to verify his accusation by checking the county's annual budget plan or with Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
When approached by the media yesterday afternoon, Chen confirmed Yu's charge.
"One of the county's townships did indeed request NT$5 million in funding from the provincial government and later received NT$50 million -- NT$10 million more than the premier recollects," Chen said.
Yu said Soong had lied about the fund the provincial government gave to Ilan County during Yu's stint as county commissioner.
"Soong owes the public an explanation as to why he granted the county over NT$60 billion in subsidies during his five-year term, but the county received only NT$26.1 billion," Yu said.
"I don't care how he spent taxpayers' money during his term as the provincial governor, but it really bothered me that he lied about the subsidy granted to the county," he said.
Yu also dismissed speculation that his recent attacks against Soong were triggered by his interest in becoming President Chen Shui-bian's (
"I've already made it clear that it's not part of my career plan to run for public office," Yu said.
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