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.
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS