President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said that the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) campaign theme titled "winning Taiwan back" concealed evil intentions, which revealed the KMT's attempts to sell its stolen party assets for less than their true value, abandon Taiwan to China and restore its "black gold" politics.
Chen made the statement yesterday evening at a campaign rally in Taichung County, which was the fourth stop on his campaign-truck tour.
Chen asked voters to support his six reform goals and vote for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) so that the three scenarios can be prevented from happening.
"I believe that everyone knows clearly that Taiwan never loses. How come the KMT said that Taiwan failed?" Chen said.
He pointed out that Taiwan has been ranked tops in the Global E-government evaluation conducted by Brown University for three consec-utive years and that the nation ran-ked among the top five in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum this year.
"The KMT's attempt is clear. It wants to sell off its ill-gotten gains and keep the money in its pockets," Chen said.
Chen's campaign truck yesterday headed to Hualien County, Taichung County and Taichung City for speeches to boost the year-end local-government election candidates.
Although the Presidential Office has stressed that the truck is not a campaign platform but a mobile podium for explaining the government's policies, Chen still focused his ire on KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Standing next to the DPP's Taichung County commissioner candidate Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), Chen said Ma flagrantly took advantage of his status as Taipei mayor to help the KMT with its party assets.
"People of Taiwan will never sit by and have a hand in this," he said.
Chen also requested voters to support the government's second economic reform and obstruct economical criminals who are KMT members who fled to China, only to return to Taiwan in an effort to deplete the country's treasury all over again.
Earlier in the day, Chen, in a speech made on the campaign truck in Hualien County, singled out the PFP as being the archcriminal that obstructed the passage of the arms procurement bill 33 times in the Legislative Yuan.
Chen said that Soong not only opposed the passage of the arms-procurement bill but also threatened Ma not to allow the KMT lawmakers to support the bill, otherwise he would let the proposed statute on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (
"As a result, Ma was scared to death. The KMT only cares about its party assets stolen from the people of Taiwan and ignore national security," Chen said.
"The PFP is the most loathsome. If they really love the country, why did they obstruct the arms sale bills?" he said.
Chen said that the arms bill is aimed at enhancing the nation's self-defense abilities and forcing China to consider the costs of attacking Taiwan, and it was never part of an arms race.
During the KMT's rule, Chen said, the KMT has decided to purchase three major weapon systems, including diesel submarines, marine patrol aircraft and new Patriot anti-missile batteries.
However, the KMT has flip-flopped on its own policy just because it became an opposition party and now incessantly boycotts the weapons bill.
"I believe people know clearly who really loves the country and who is selfish," Chen said.
On Saturday, Chen's campaign truck will move to Taipei County to boost the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate for Taipei County commissioner election, Luo Wen-chia (
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