More than 77 percent of respondents in a survey conducted by a polling company on behalf of the Zero Party Assets Alliance felt that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) huge assets create unequal competition between political parties, the alliance told a press conference yesterday.
The poll, conducted on Saturday and Sunday, showed that 58.8 percent of respondents agreed that the assets of political parties should be brought to zero, with 14.3 percent disagreeing.
While 56.3 percent of people polled agreed that political parties should only use political donations and party subsidies to conduct election events, 22.6 percent disagreed.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
A little more than 50 percent of respondents said that parties should not hold any shares or bonds that have value in the markets, while 28.1 percent disagreed.
In addition, 50.9 percent agreed that parties who have held large party assets for a long time were detrimental to the development of democracy, while 29.1 percent disagreed.
Almost 60 percent of respondents agreed that the KMT has had an economic advantage for a long time, with 50.7 percent of respondents saying they knew that the KMT’s assets came from taking over Japanese colonial-era assets, subsidization from national coffers and other special business interests.
A little more than 77 percent of people polled said the KMT’s possession of large party assets was unfair in the competition among political parties, while 8.6 percent said it was fair.
About 55 percent said they were dissatisfied with how President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the KMT presidential candidate, has handled the KMT’s assets, while 13.5 percent were satisfied.
Ma had claimed he would sell off all party assets when he became KMT chairman in 2009, but the KMT received NT$2.9 billion (US$95,82 million) in share dividends that year.
Just over 58 percent of respondents said that political parties should not have party-run businesses or party assets, while 16.9 percent disagreed with that statement and 54.5 percent of the respondents said that only amendments to the Political Party Act (政黨法) would resolve the problems involving party assets.
Alliance convener and head of the Taiwan Association of University Professors, Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲), said that KMT assets were an old issue, but also one that has not been resolved.
He added that because the presidential election is just over two weeks away, the issue would sharpen the focus on the inequality posed by the KMT’s party assets.
National Taipei University department of public finance professor Huang Shih-hsin (黃世鑫) said that as long as the KMT asset issue existed, normal democratic development in Taiwan would be impossible. He added that the influence of party assets was a problem in the present and the future.
Aside from publishing the poll, the alliance also collected data from an Executive Yuan Web site listing illicit party assets, which was deleted by the Ma administration, and published it on its own Web site at http://zero-kmt.blogspot.com.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS