The Taoyuan County Government yesterday admitted it collaborated with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors to jointly release a statement supporting former county commissioner Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is now running for mayor of Sinbei City, Taipei County’s name once it’s been upgraded.
The action, which legal experts said was “clearly illegal,” could add fuel to concerns that Chu’s campaign has been operating in violation of laws on government impartiality. His opponent, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), yesterday accused the county government of giving the KMT candidate preferential treatment.
The joint statement, sent out by the county government and later forwarded by Chu’s campaign office, heavily criticizes the opposition party and claims the DPP held back national development.
It also accuses the DPP of “badmouthing” the county and says the DPP under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) “laughed at” the area’s development.
Regarding allegations made by Tsai’s campaign that Chu failed to complete his election promises of building an MRT line during his eight years as Taoyuan County commissioner, the statement said: “We deeply regret [to say] that the reason for [this] ... is because of the DPP administration and not the county government or Eric Chu.”
“We are not denying that [he] failed to complete his plans for an MRT system during his tenure ... but the main reason is because the DPP-led central government [rejected the proposal] and even heckled us at all turns,” the statement read. “The real check-bouncers are the DPP.”
The statement, which was jointly signed by the Taoyuan County Government and the KMT county councilor caucus, was posted on the county government’s Web site yesterday afternoon. An official responsible for sending out the press release admitted the county government sent a copy to the KMT caucus for approval before its release to the public.
“We wrote it and then asked the KMT caucus to take a look at it,” said Lin Ming-chang (林明昌), a section chief at the county’s public transit office. “We didn’t send it to the DPP caucus because they are the source of those problems.”
“This made the process simpler,” he said.
The release, however, may have violated the Civil Service Administrative Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法), which prohibits government agencies from publicizing documents from political parties, said Chen Chao-jian (陳朝建), an assistant professor of public affairs at Ming Chuan University who specializes in local administrative law.
Article 9 of the act states that it is illegal for public employees to “use administrative resources to edit, print or copy, distribute or otherwise post documents pictures and other promotion materials” for political parties or candidates.
It refers to administrative resources as the use of any public tools, funds, locations or human resources.
“It was extremely improper for the Taoyuan County Government to do this,” Chen Chao-jian said. “Civil servants have an obligation to remain politically neutral ... and this statement was clearly in violation of this principle.”
The county government officials who worked on the statement, he said, could be disciplined under Article 22 of the Civil Servant Services Act (公務員服務法).
The act stipulates that the penalty would be subject to the severity of the violation.
“This wouldn’t be the case, under the guise of equality, if the Taoyuan County Government had also routinely published statements from the DPP caucus,” he said. “But I think you’ll find this hasn’t happened.”
DPP Taoyuan County Council caucus whip Hsu Ching-wen (徐景文) confirmed that the opposition party’s county councilors did not see a copy of the statement before it was released. He called the issue “clear evidence that the government is not politically neutral.”
“They don’t seem to realize that Chu has already left office ... of course they can’t just use working hours to help his campaign,” Hsu said.
The issue would be closely investigated, he added.
This was not the first time Chu has drawn accusations that his campaign had violated rules of government impartiality. Statements released by the Taoyuan County Government rejecting some of the DPP’s allegations against Chu are routinely forwarded by his campaign.
“I think the county government is perhaps as busy [as Chu’s campaign] stumping for the [KMT candidate],” said Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), a spokesperson for Tsai’s campaign. “It seems they are his biggest supporters ... and I’m sure Taoyuan residents will have something to say about this.”
Chu’s campaign spokesperson Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) refused to comment.
Despite repeated requests for comment by the Taipei Times, the Taoyuan County Government had not replied at press time.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS