Jailed former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lashed out at Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) over his allegations that former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) were “accomplices” in Chen’s “corrupt administration.”
Chen said in the pro--democracy online magazine Neo Formosa Weekly that while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) enjoyed talking about fighting corruption, the party that he heads, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was the most corrupt political establishment in history.
Corruption was the reason dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan, Chen said. Corruption was also attributed to the KMT’s defeat by the DPP in the 2000 presidential election, he said.
Questioning Ma’s connection with Taipei’s problem-plagued Wenshan-Neihu MRT line, Chen said Ma was an accomplice to Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration. Had the same thing happened to him when he was Taipei mayor, Chen said he would have been investigated — but Ma has remained above the law.
Ma is also a willing participant in a campaign to “annihilate” the Republic of China (ROC), Chen said. While the DPP has no great love for the national flag of the ROC, his administration insisted that the flag be flown if China wanted Taiwan to participate in the Olympic torch relay prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he said.
However, under Ma’s presidency, ROC flags were nowhere to be seen when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan in November 2008 and students recently were told not to wave the national flag when cheering for local basketball teams, Chen said.
“The administration’s talk about protecting the ROC is nothing but an election gimmick aimed at swindling voters,” he said.
It would also be appropriate to say that Ma was also an accomplice to dictators such as Chiang, his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Chen said.
Ma’s reluctance to address the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and to approve the visit of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama were evidence of this, Chen said. Ma’s administration has also blacklisted World Uyghur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer and failed to call for the release of Chinese rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) until other world leaders made such calls, Chen said.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
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