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Former DPP official mulls Presidential Office lawsuit
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
A controversy over the tens of thousands of
allegedly missing documents from the Presidential Office has led at least one
senior aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to counter by saying that
he is considering filing a lawsuit.
Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), a former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general who is
among the 17 former senior officials accused of improperly filing official
documents, said yesterday that he had not ruled out the possibility of legal
action.
“Personally, I can’t accept these accusations. If neither President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) nor the Presidential Office can show us evidence as to where their
allegations come from, we will be filing a slander suit,” Chen Chi-mai said. “Ma
said that he was livid when he learned of the news, but I’m even more furious.”
Chen Chi-mai and the other 16 former officials learned of the accusations late
on Tuesday night, after sporadic media reports coming from the Presidential
Office said that a two-year investigation had uncovered more than 32,000 missing
documents.
The controversy came after Chen Shui-bian was found last year to have taken
dozens of boxes of official documents from the Presidential Office when his term
ended in 2008.
Also included on the list were former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former
premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who is vying for the DPP’s presidential nomination
next month.
Asked about the allegations yesterday, Lu said the investigation had “clear
political motivation.”
“It’s incredible,” Lu said. “Presidents and vice presidents don’t handle the
filing of documents personally. These official files are always handled by
staffers who closely follow existing protocols.”
“If they are going to investigate this issue, why not start before 2000 — before
the previous [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] administration ended? They
shouldn’t just pick and choose,” she said.
Su said he believed “society would be the best judge” of whether the accusations
were politically motivated.
“Every government agency in Taiwan, big or small, has specialized departments in
charge of document processing,” Su said. “Ma should perhaps be more concerned
with public welfare problems than spending time being ‘livid’ about this.”
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