President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration yesterday came under criticism during the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 19th Central Review Committee over its handling of the political crisis involving Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The crisis arose from Ma’s attempt in September to remove Wang — both from the party and as speaker — after receiving information from Special Investigation Division (SID) Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) on Aug. 31 that Wang allegedly lobbied former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), High Prosecutors’ Office head prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) and High Prosecutors’ Office prosecutor Lin Shiow-tao (林秀濤) not to appeal against the acquittal of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in a breach of trust case.
Chen Keng-chin (陳庚金), a heavyweight from Greater Taichung’s “Black” faction, told Ma during the meeting that the government’s “news releases were officious, flowery and impractical,” adding that his administration’s responses — when it responded at all — avoided the issues, were one-sided and tended to mask the severity of the problem.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Chen also said that Ma’s attempt to remove Wang from the party was not in accordance with protocol, adding that it raised doubts about how staff could act according to Ma’s professed core values of justice and equality.
Chen said that prior to the meeting, he had e-mailed an additional copy to KMT Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) as well as Ma himself, but he had not received a reply from either man, adding that the party’s higher-ups had also asked party heavyweights like Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) and Hsu Li-teh (徐立德) to talk to him in the hopes of “smoothing things out.”
Chen said that the party’s responses in either respect were “hard to accept.”
Former Taiwanese provincial governor Chao Shou-po (趙守博) also said that the Ma administration’s actions were very much like the Rectification Movement enacted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1942 to 1944, adding that all participants in the decisionmaking process in the party and administration needed to reflect on their actions and attitudes.
The Yanan Rectification Movement was the first ideological movement the CCP had enacted, cementing Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) role in the party’s leadership, both politically and ideologically, through the removal of opponents and making Mao’s philosophies dominant.
In the face of Ma’s plummeting support and the popular practice of throwing shoes at the president, former minister of justice Hsiao Tien-tzang (蕭天讚) said the party should defend and support Ma.
Hsiao said that such acts should not be tolerated and should be dealt with using the full force of the law.
“We cannot allow such violent actions against the head of state that have begun recently to continue. While it is normally tolerable, it not only violates personal rights, but damages the respect the head of state, and the party chairman, should receive,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao also supported Ma’s actions during the “September strife,” saying that Ma had made a “clear and wise move” in the lobbying case.
Ma had chosen to tolerate criticism that he does not know right from wrong, but “too much tolerance will only be ridiculed as weakness and incompetence” and there should be limits to the tolerance the party shows, Hsiao said, adding that he was certain all who were present at the congress knew what he meant.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat