Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement at his first trial in Taipei for alleged breach of trust and contraventions of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) was full of errors, a former member of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration said yesterday.
Ma is being charged for his role in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) sale of three media companies — Central Motion Picture Corp (中影), China Television Co (CTV, 中視) and Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣) — in 2005 and 2006 when he was party chairman.
The KMT’s assets became the target of attacks after Chen was elected president in 2000, Ma said in his defense statement.
Prior to 1954, former Taiwan governor K.C. Wu (吳國楨) had already said that the KMT was using the national treasury as the party treasury, said the source, who worked at a minister without portfolio’s office addressing ill-gotten party assets while Chen was in office.
Ma’s claim that the KMT’s assets came under attack starting in 2000, resulting in a negative perception of KMT-run businesses, departs from historical facts, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source also rebutted Ma’s argument that former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in 2002 announced that the party would donate 152 assets to various levels of the government.
These so-called “donations” were actually “regifting” of real estate that various government agencies had “gifted” to the KMT during the authoritarian period, the source said.
The necessity and urgency of handling the KMT’s assets had increased at the time, as the deadline for dealing with the assets was approaching and the KMT was short of funds, Ma said in his statement.
The Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法) required political parties to withdraw from the management of radio and television stations by Dec. 26, 2005.
However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration at the time was not pleased to see the KMT deal with its assets and obstructed the process, Ma said.
Former China Times Group chairman Albert Yu (余建新) had expressed an interest in purchasing Central Investment Co’s (中央投資公司) stake in Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co (華夏投資公司), but then-Government Information Office director-general Pasuya Yao (姚文智) wrote a letter telling the interested parties that if they purchased CTV stakes from Hua Hsia Investment, they would lose their right to them due to the results of an investigation into ill-gotten party assets, Ma said.
On what basis could Yao determine that the shares of Hua Hsia Investment possessed by Central Investment were ill-gotten party assets, Ma asked.
The legal basis was the draft of the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), which was completed in 2002, but the review of which was delayed due to the KMT exploiting its majority in the Legislative Yuan, the source said.
The designation of the shares as ill-gotten party assets was made based on government documents and a comprehensive understanding of history, they said, adding that the Control Yuan had asked the Executive Yuan to conduct a thorough investigation.
As the KMT was trying to sell off its assets and profit from them instead of returning them to the state, the DPP had a responsibility to warn the public of the risks of accepting ill-gotten party assets, they said.
The public had hoped to see the ill-gotten assets returned to the state and the people, the source said.
Instead, Ma broke his promise to “zero out the party assets,” by selling the assets and profiting from them, the source added.
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