Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has signed up to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) signature drive to hold a referendum to recover the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) stolen assets, the DPP confirmed yesterday.
Answering reporters' inquiries, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said Lee's endorsement was passed on to him at a dinner on June 20 through Ng Chiau-tong (
"Ng told me that Lee had endorsed it [the referendum] a long time ago ... I felt very happy when Ng handed the signature to me. I also told him he could have given it to me in public," Yu said.
Yu, however, said Ng did not tell him why Lee, a former KMT chairman, had decided to join the campaign.
Yu said he did not think Lee's endorsement contradicted his former role as KMT chairman, adding that those who have publicly promised but failed to return the KMT's stolen assets to the Taiwanese people -- such as KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) -- are the ones contradicting themselves.
The DPP initiated the campaign last November and reached its goal of collecting over 1.4 million signatures last month.
The Referendum Law (公投法) states that a referendum cannot be held unless 5 percent of the nation's eligible voters, or 830,000 people, endorse a referendum proposal.
"Lee believes the KMT's assets are a product of history. He endorsed the campaign because he hopes all political parties in the nation can compete fairly," said Chou Mei-li (周美里), a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Solidarity Union, of which Lee is the spiritual leader.
Asked for comments, DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (
"Recovering the stolen assets is a common goal of many people, including some KMT and People First Party members ... It is also a matter of right and wrong," DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
Approached for comments at the same event, Ma said he was "surprised" to learn of Lee's endorsement and "did not understand why" Lee had participated in the campaign because Lee had been responsible for dealing with many of the party's assets when he was KMT chairman.
KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) said the KMT's party-owned enterprises made a lot of money when Lee was party chairman, adding that it was the number of enterprises the party owned that had upset people back then.
"I assure everyone that we will not run any enterprises and will not make any money from them anymore," he said.
Wu said the KMT is now so poor that it has difficulty paying party staffers' salaries.
"What the KMT wants now is to fulfill its social responsibilities. After all, taking care of retired party staffers and giving party officials paychecks is also a social responsibility," he said.
In a related development, Ma yesterday dismissed speculation that he asked his running mate, former premier Vincent Siew (
Wu also downplayed the speculation, saying the KMT is only trying to "make more friends."
Hsieh, however, criticized Ma, saying: "It is important for someone to be consistent rather than try to get close to certain people only ahead of elections."
Responding to Lee's support for the referendum campaign, KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (
The period when Lee was KMT chairman was the most energetic in terms of the management of the party's assets, Wu said. The party made huge amounts of money and also suffered great losses, he said.
KMT caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (
KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"It's a normal thing." Wang said, adding that Lee would help win over KMT pro-localization voters.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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