President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), should apologize to the public for a scandal involving former DPP member Chao Chieh-yu (趙介佑), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
Chao, who is being investigated for alleged fraud and drug offenses, was expelled from the DPP on Saturday through a motion passed by the review committee of the party’s Taipei chapter.
In 2016, he served as an adviser to Tsai’s presidential campaign office in Taipei.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
The committee on Saturday also selected a new convener, Lin Wan-he (林萬賀), following the resignation of Chao’s father, Chao Ying-kuang (趙映光), from the position.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said the DPP’s expulsion of Chao Chieh-yu was merely an attempt to stop the scandal spreading.
The alleged misconduct by Chao Chieh-yu “did not start today,” Wang said, adding that controversy over his activities date back to December 2016, when he was sentenced to four months in jail after being arrested by police for drug use, and stealing and driving an ambulance.
Tsai was DPP chairperson at the time and should have been upset by Chao Chieh-yu’s controversies “long ago,” Wang said.
Wang asked whether Tsai would have “continued to condone” Chao Chieh-yu’s behavior if the media had not reported the story.
The DPP has shown people that as long as a person possesses a DPP membership card, they can “do anything,” Wang said, adding that the incident involving Chao Chieh-yu is “just the tip of the iceberg” and the result of Tsai’s permissiveness as chairperson of the DPP.
As DPP chairperson, Tsai should apologize to the public for the disturbance caused by a member of her party, Wang said.
Being chairperson of the ruling party and the president, Tsai is “the most powerful person in Taiwan,” and has a responsibility to rectify public safety issues in the nation, she added.
The KMT in a statement accused Tsai of wanting to distance the DPP from the scandal.
“People’s eyes are sharp,” the KMT wrote, adding that the DPP’s handling of Chao Chieh-yu was not enough to “stop people’s mistrust of the ruling party.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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