The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday reviewed the draft political party act (政黨法), a move which was seen by opposition lawmakers as an attempt by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to distract public attention from scrutiny over its assets.
Despite the KMT’s previous efforts to block the review of draft regulations on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (政黨不當取得財產處理條例), the legislators of the opposition parties still managed to level doubts about the KMT’s immense party assets during the meeting.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) alleged that the placement of the draft political party act’s review on the agenda before the end of the current plenary session was merely a move to pull the KMT out of the predicament for New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) imminent chairmanship and next month’s legislative by-election.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-shen (吳育昇), who presided over yesterday’s meeting, denied the allegation and said the placement was not politically calculated, while Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) added that, since he was there for the meeting, the review “was definitely for real.”
While the opposition parties questioned the ruling party’s intentions due to its refusal to review the draft regulations on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties, and used the occasion to blast the KMT for assets that they believe to have been amassed via illegal means, KMT lawmakers focused on the possibility of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) returning as a political leader and the threshold of financial aid issued to political parties by the government.
Wu said that, according to the Executive Yuan’s version of the draft political party act, anyone who has been convicted of corruption cannot be a party’s chairperson, which is a rule “to lead society and political parties in the direction of integrity.”
He added that the threshold for political parties to receive aid should be reduced from the current 5 percent of received votes, to which Chen Wei-zen initially agreed, but did not go as far as agreeing to a 1 percent threshold.
DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) called into question the way the KMT dealt with its assets, saying that the party’s efforts to distribute its assets were put in the hands of its own think tank’s economic team’s convener.
Tuan pointed out that Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉) was a board member of the party’s Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台股份有限公司) when he was working for the KMT’s think tank.
Tuan said that such management of a party asset lacked “sincerity.”
Other DPP lawmakers questioned if gains from investments still went into the KMT’s coffers.
Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said that a complete audit of the KMT’s assets has never been settled, with exact values provided by different parties at odds with each other.
“The KMT itself claimed to have about NT$20 billion, but the Ministry of Finance’s National Property Administration has declared that the party has more than NT$60.7 billion in just property alone,” Lee said.
Lee was also critical of the KMT’s efforts to obstruct transparency in the dealings, saying that the National Property Administration used to have a Web site that listed the KMT’s assets, but “was forced to shut it down in accordance with a resolution passed by KMT lawmakers who threatened to cut the agency’s budget unless the Web site was taken down.”
Yesterday’s meeting was adjourned early, with lawmakers fielding a complete round of questioning, but without the review of any articles in the draft, to which the DPP lawmakers voiced their discontent.
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