President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) eldest sister plans to sue Next Magazine over allegations she had used her influence to persuade a university chairman to hire her brother-in-law as school chancellor and to demand that a senior citizens’ house provide around-the-clock care for her mother-in-law.
Ma Yi-nan (馬以南) has entrusted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor and lawyer Lai Su-ju (賴素如) to handle her case, Lai said yesterday.
Lai said her client told her it was a “false report” and decided to take legal action against the magazine to protect her reputation.
The weekly’s latest issue, available yesterday, claimed Ma Yi-nan earlier this month pressured the chairman of Minghsin University of Science and Technology (MUST), through Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基), hoping the chairman would hire her brother-in-law, Feng Dan-pai (馮丹白) — dean of National Taiwan Normal University’s College of Technology — as MUST chancellor.
The magazine also alleged Ma Yi-nan abused her power by placing her mother-in-law into Chao-ju — a famous nursing home located in the mountains near National Chengchi University — shortly after Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008.
Anyone over the age of 65 who has registered their household with the city for more than four months and can take care of their daily life is eligible to file an application, the home’s regulations say.
The report alleged Ma Yi-nan called Taipei City Department of Social Welfare Commissioner Shih Yu-ling (師豫玲) in a bid to secure a room for her mother-in-law and even asked the home to assign three foreign caregivers to assist her mother-in-law — in her 90s — around the clock.
The report said the city’s Department of Labor made surprise inspections of the home on June 3 and June 25, after receiving reports of a violation regarding the foreign caregivers.
The home later passed on the information to Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) through some of his close friends and urged his office to stop any similar incidents from occurring, the report said.
Lai yesterday said Feng was recently elected the new MUST chancellor, but added her client did not use her influence in any form to sway Wu.
As for the other allegation, Lai said Ma Yi-nan’s mother-in-law began staying at the nursing facility in 2003 — long before the presidential election. Lai said her client never meddled in the allocation of manpower at the facility nor made any special requests.
Without double-checking the time, place and people involved, Lai said the magazine risked committing libel and violating journalistic ethics and professionalism by publishing such a false report.
Hau, the Taipei City Government and the Ministry of Education also rejected the report.
“This is absolutely untrue. President Ma has never mentioned anything related to his sister’s mother-in-law to me, either,” Hau said when asked for comment.
Shih said the department never received phone calls from Ma Yi-nan to hire foreign caregivers or to offer 24-hour service for her mother-in-law. Shih also defended Ma Yi-nan’s right to hire foreign caretakers since the nursing home was run by a private business.
Lee Yen-yi (李彥儀), director of the ministry’s Department of Technological and Vocational Education, said Wu, who is currently on an inspection trip in Vietnam, was very upset at the report.
Lee said Wu had never intervened in the university’s chancellor selection process nor had he had any contact with Ma Yi-nan.
Next Magazine said it respected the right of Ma Yi-nan to file a lawsuit over the report.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
RSS