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KMT reinstates old scholarship
BLUE BLOOD: The KMT is bringing back a scholarship after a 10-year hiatus,
past recipients of which include current KMT heavyweights, including President
Ma
By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Aug 05, 2010, Page 3
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced the
revival of the Sun Yat-sen Scholarship, a program that used to be a major means
for the party to cultivate talent within its own ranks, as it encouraged its
members to apply for the program while denying assigning political missions to
scholarship recipients.
The KMT launched the scholarship program in 1960 to send outstanding young party
members abroad for advanced studies.
Many of the recipients later became KMT heavyweights and top politicians,
including President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E), KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung
(ª÷·ÁÁo) and Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (¦¿¤ş©[).
The reinstatement of the scholarship comes 10 years after it was suspended,
after Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, discussed reinstating it with party
officials in April.
KMT Vice Chairman Chan Chun-po (¸â¬K¬f), who won the scholarship in 1966, yesterday
said the program served as a great way to cultivate talent for the nation,
rather than for political purposes.
¡§The purpose of the Sun Yat-sen Scholarship is to cultivate talent and help them
make great contributions to the nation. There are no controversies involved in
the program. We are doing good things for the nation with the program,¡¨ he said
at the party¡¦s headquarters.
The scholarship sparked controversy when opposition parties accused the KMT of
sending scholarship recipients overseas to work as campus spies for the party,
reporting on pro-independence Taiwanese students.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has alleged that Ma, who received the
scholarship in 1974, was one of the ¡§professional students¡¨ for the KMT when he
studied at Harvard University. The DPP has accused Ma of being responsible for
reporting on many pro-independence Taiwanese and putting them on a blacklist for
criticizing the KMT.
The KMT yesterday invited other scholarship recipients to endorse the program,
including Taichung County Deputy Commissioner Chang Chuang-hsi (±i§§º³) and Hu Yu-wei
(J¥®°¶), a professor of mass communications at National Taiwan Normal University,
who insisted that they were never asked to participate in any political
activities.
¡§I had expected being assigned secret missions when I won the scholarship, but
the KMT just asked me to focus on my studies and serve the nation when I
returned to Taiwan,¡¨ Hu said.
Chang echoed Hu¡¦s comments and encouraged younger KMT members to apply for the
scholarship.
The program will offer a two-year scholarship of NT$2.6 million (US$80,000) to
recipients. KMT members under 40 with a college degree are eligible to apply.
The KMT will select 10 recipients following written and oral tests.
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