Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) should take responsibility and apologize to the public over a series of corruption scandals that have tarnished the government’s image, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
A public opinion poll of 1,081 people conducted via telephone through random sampling from Aug. 6 to Aug 7 showed that more than 60 percent of respondents hold negative views about the government’s role in four corruption scandals, KMT Culture and Communications Committee chairperson Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
The results reflected the public’s strong opposition to the corruption and abuse of power by the government led by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Wang said.
Asked whether it goes against the principle of conflict of interest to have General Association of Chinese Culture deputy secretary-general Lee Hou-ching (李厚慶) sit on a committee evaluating government bids in which SET-TV (三立電視), where his wife works, won a tender for the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum’s branding project, 62.2 percent of respondents said yes, Wang said.
Asked whether Su should be held accountable for appointing Jason Liao (廖燦昌) — who had been associated with a financial scandal involving Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co — as First Financial Holding Co chairman, and then removed from his post after he was implicated in another scandal involving Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT), 61.4 percent of respondents agreed, she added.
The survey also showed that 62.6 percent of respondents agreed that the government should not pay certain media outlets to promote itself, she said.
In addition, 72 percent of respondents disapproved of Taiwan Railways Administration spending NT$15.49 million (US$524,518) to hire Haruru Design to improve its brand image, while owing many employees overtime pay, she said.
Young respondents aged 20 to 39 largely responded in line with the survey’s overall results, which showed that they are losing faith in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the party should face the scandals and deal with them properly, committee deputy chairman Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said.
People voted for the DPP to become the ruling party, but not for it to enjoy special privileges, committee deputy chairwoman Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said, adding that Su should not shrink his responsibility and should apologize to the public for his lack of oversight.
“The people are seeing the DDP-led government throwing money, but only benefiting its own people and neglecting workers’ rights,” Alicia Wang said.
Taxpayers’ money should be spent more wisely, instead on “brainwashing people,” she added.
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