Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday accused the Kuma Academy of illegal fundraising, saying it engaged in politics during its public welfare activities.
The academy, a nonprofit civil defense organization, last year launched a fundraising campaign named “the Project of Promoting Civil Defense Education in Taiwan” via the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s public welfare fundraising platform.
At a news conference yesterday, KMT Legislator Jonathan Lin (林沛祥) cited publicly available data as saying that the project last year covered almost all of the academy’s own agenda and events, with up to NT$1.5 million (US$45,645) allocated as what he called propaganda budget.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Another NT$3 million was appropriated to a civil defense-themed sports event named “Stand up as Taiwan,” which was the only walking event held by the academy last year, he said.
However, the event was part of a political campaign, he said, adding that the Executive Yuan’s Central Taiwan Joint Services Center Deputy Director Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧) joined the walk, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) flag was pictured in a lot of event photos.
The project has collected more than NT$15 million in funds, KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said.
The ministry’s platform aims to effectively manage fundraising activities and leverage social resources to promote public welfare, especially for disadvantaged groups, she said.
Those who already have fundraising capabilities such as the academy should not compete with the disadvantaged for the resources on the platform, Wang said, adding that the academy had secured funds on its own fundraising Web site before.
It not only illegally raised funds, but also crowded out other fundraisers, such as for elderly people living alone, people with rare diseases or physical disabilities, and many other child welfare groups, she said.
The ministry should promptly investigate the academy, as its public welfare project was an act of “exploitation” for the benefit of the DPP, she added.
The academy’s activities contravened Article 3 of Charity Donations Destined For Social Welfare Funds Implementation Regulations (公益勸募條例), which forbids groups or individuals who engage in politics from participating in public welfare fundraising, KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said.
The budget of NT$410 million appropriated by the Ministry of the Interior for its Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Training Program had a budget item called “parent-child civil defense fair,” projected to cost NT$9 million, he said.
However, civil defense fairs are held almost exclusively by the academy, and it has raised NT$2 million for such an event, Lo said.
“Given such fundraising capabilities, why would the government subsidize the academy’s project?” he asked.
Kuma Academy chief executive officer Chu Fu-ming (朱福銘) said the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party have been smearing the organization’s reputation since China’s Taiwan Affairs Office listed it as “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.”
Academy chairwoman Liu Wen (劉文) said the academy applied for a fundraiser as required by the law, with a plan submitted in 2023.
The project items are in line with the academy’s core business of education, including lectures on civil defense for schools and non-profit organizations, civil defense fairs for children and social media content about civil defense knowledge, she said.
Asked whether the academy crowded out disadvantaged groups, Liu said the platform allows people to see all legally approved public welfare fundraising projects and is not a donation channel.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS