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Wang row ploy to push
through trade deal: DPP
By Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) yesterday said
the efforts by the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration to remove Legislative
Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) from the Legislative Yuan were a ploy to push for
the ratification of the cross-strait service trade agreement in the legislature.
The nation has been rocked by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special
Investigation Division’s (SID) allegations that Wang had 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) in
an attempt to take legal pressure off Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus
whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
If it is ratified by the Legislative Yuan, the service trade agreement, which
was signed in June in Shanghai, would open 64 sub-sectors in the service
industry to Chinese investment, while China will open 80 sub-sectors to
Taiwanese businesses.
Aside from the media reports of Ma having called several media companies on the
Wang issue — showing that the government was attempting to influence it — Pan
also said he received a tip-off from local supporters.
Pan cited source as saying that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had launched
a counter-offensive by spreading rumors — particularly around veterans’ villages
— that Wang lobbied for Ker and that Ma did the right thing and that if the
service trade agreement did not pass, the government’s finances would become
even more strained, which could affect their retirement funding.
Some have alleged that Wang had struck a deal with the opposition party to let
the Ma administration have little or no administrative results to show for in
order to facilitate the impeachment of Ma, Pan said.
It is clear that efforts to remove Wang are not actually a vendetta against Wang
himself, but are focused on the passage of the agreement, Pan said, adding that
it was appalling that the government has resorted to using pension funds to
intimidate its own citizens.
The government’s strained financial situation has nothing to do with the
ratification of the agreement, and everything to do with how the Ma
administration has handled economic policies, Pan said.
The KMT should not confuse the effects of its mistakes for the cause, Pan said.
Pointing out that the KMT holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, Pan said it
was strange that the KMT had not tried to amend the relevant legal acts over the
past years if it was truly dissatisfied with how the legislature carried out its
negotiations.
“Only when they are trying to remove Wang are they saying that the system is
flawed, which does not make sense,” Pan said.
Pan added that whether Wang had or had not lobbied for Ker was not the
president’s or the KMT’s business, adding that it was an internal disciplinary
matter for the Legislative Yuan to deal with.
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