Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday questioned former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) influence in the next presidential election, and added that it was during Lee’s presidency that the nation’s political culture became rife with corruption and gangsters.
In an interview with China Television Co, Wu said that Lee’s recent call for people to vote for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rather than President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in January’s election would “work on a tiny minority.”
Wu, picked as Ma’s running mate, also called for solidarity between People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying that a “lack of unity” was a symptom indicating the possibility of failure for the party.
During the interview, to be broadcast tomorrow, Wu said the 88-year-old former president “doesn’t keep abreast of developments in society because of his age” when he was asked to assess how Lee’s support for Tsai would help boost her election chances.
“Lee has made a contribution to democracy in Taiwan, but he also created a burden to its development,” Wu said, adding that it was during Lee’s presidency that political culture became riddled with corruption and gangsters, known as “black gold” politics.
Lee does not fully agree with Tsai’s policies, judging by his noncommittal attitude when asked by reporters to comment on her “nuclear-free homeland” policy, Wu added.
Wu also criticized Lee for sayting that Japan holds jurisdiction over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which are also claimed by Taiwan and China.
On the reported rift within the pan-blue camp over how to file joint nominations for the legislative elections in January and news reports alleging the KMT has demanded Soong return NT$240 million (US$8.342 million) he allegedly took from the party in 1999, Wu said the KMT must unite with the PFP to win the presidential election.
Wu said that Ma has not been able to get in touch with Soong on the telephone in the past month to set up a meeting to discuss cooperation between the two parties in the elections.
“On several occasions, President Ma was on hold when [KMT Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以)] was trying to reach Soong. I was there,” Wu said.
It has come to Ma’s attention that he could have interacted more with Soong in the past three years, but Ma has been so consumed by his job he hasn’t had a chance to do so, Wu said.
“President Ma has been addicted to his job, as he works 17 hours a day, seven days a week, so he was not good at interacting with the PFP,” Wu said.
Commenting on Wu’s remarks regarding “black gold” politics, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said it “reeked of political interference in the judiciary,” but pointed out that the allegations of corruption during Lee’s administration involved only KMT officials.
“It has nothing to the with the DPP — in fact, President Ma Ying-jeou, who was at the ministry of justice at the time, should take the ultimate responsibility for any failures to eradicate corruption,” Chen said.
“The KMT is shooting itself in the foot by mentioning any ‘black gold’ corruption,” he added.
Meanwhile, Wang Yan-chun (王燕軍), a close aide to Lee, said that Wu needed to provide evidence to back up his remarks, adding that “they shouldn’t criticize the wrong guy.”
“Let’s see the evidence. Without evidence, Wu shouldn’t be making baseless allegations,” said Wang, the secretary-general of the think tank Taiwan Advocates.
Additional reporting by Vincent Y. Chao
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but