|
2012 ELECTIONS: DPP
says KMT inciting a ‘Watergate’
RELYING ON THE JUDICIARY? The DPP said the KMT
was using the judiciary to help its re-election chances with a probe into the
National Development Fund
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Left: A picture shows the
document that Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina
Liu provided to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), listing Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen as one of the
principal figures in the start-up of bio-technology company TaiMed Inc. The
circled date on the document says March 31, 2007. The KMT has accused Tsai of
involvement in the start-up of the firm while still serving as vice premier.
Right: A picture shows the document the DPP says originated from the TaiMed
investors’ meeting on Aug. 19, 2007, identical to the document the KMT displayed
from March that year, with the exception of the incorrect date, as marked in the
picture. The DPP has alleged that Liu forged the August document on behalf of
the KMT, using the August copy and adding the incorrect date to frame Tsai.
Photos: Liberty Times
A slide provided by the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) shows the correct version of the March 31,
2007, TaiMed Group investors’ meeting documentation, which only bears the names
of David Ho and Chen Lan-bo. DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s name does
not appear on the document.
Photo: Liberty Times
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
yesterday described the controversy surrounding its presidential candidate Tsai
Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) involvement with a biotechnology start-up as “Taiwan’s Watergate
scandal,” claiming that administrative and judiciary agencies have been used as
campaign tools to benefit the presidential campaign of the Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT).
The accusation came after the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation
Panel (SIP) launched an investigation into the National Development Fund (NDF)
on Tuesday night and seized information about three investment deals made
between 2005 and 2008, when Tsai served as vice premier.
The DPP accused Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister
Christina Liu (劉憶如) of being the KMT’s “hired thug” by fabricating documents to
suggest Tsai’s wrongdoings in the formation of and the government’s investment
in Yu Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司).
Yesterday afternoon, the DPP filed lawsuits with the Taipei District
Prosecutors’ Office against Liu and KMT legislators Chiu Yi (邱毅), Hsieh
Kuo-liang (謝國樑) and Lin Yi-shih (林益世), charging them with document forgery and
violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act
(總統副總統選舉罷免法).
The party also condemned what it called the SIP’s collaboration with the KMT.
‘WATERGATE’
“The case has now become Taiwan’s Watergate, a definite political scandal. We
demand that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the SIP explain why they have
resorted to the measure to influence the presidential election,” DPP
spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Liu and the KMT on Monday accused the DPP chairperson of involvement in
wrongdoings when they displayed a document that they said was distributed by
TaiMed Group, from which Yu Chang Biologics was formed, at an investors’
conference on March 31, 2007, and said the presentation document listed Tsai as
one of the principal leaders of the start-up during the time she was vice
premier.
However, the document was actually a TaiMed Group presentation from Aug. 19,
2007 — three months after Tsai left office, the DPP said on Tuesday, but the KMT
inserted additional information on the document copies provided to the media
that indicated it had come from the March investors’ conference.
The DPP demanded a formal apology from Liu and the three KMT lawmakers.
While Liu apologized on Tuesday evening for “confusing the dates” of the
document, her refusal to say the document had been fabricated was the reason
behind the DPP’s decision to file the lawsuit, Chen said at a press conference.
Liu’s mistake was more than carelessly misstating the date, Chen said, as the
document appeared to have been fabricated before Monday because Liu repeatedly
said in the press conference that “the March 31 document” was important in
determining Tsai’s role in the case.
At the press conference on Tuesday evening in which she ostensibly apologized,
Liu said there were what she called “more questionable points” concerning the Yu
Chang case, Chen added.
CAMPAIGN TIE-IN
In light of this, the DPP stepped up its claims of the behind-the-scenes
political maneuvering by the KMT to benefit its presidential campaign.
“This is a case where the ruling party has exploited state institutions and
attacked its opponent with fabricated information,” Chen said.
Citing news reports from various media outlets between Friday last week and
Monday, Chen said an unidentified high-ranking KMT official had been quoted as
saying that “Tsai could face legal issues if she played a specific role in the
case.”
“This seemed to us a sophisticatedly plotted political conspiracy ... We want to
identify who the official is and what the KMT’s motive is to politicize this
case,” DPP spokesman Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
“Most people have by now become accustomed to the KMT’s “smear campaign trilogy
of so-called whistleblowing, intensive media scrutiny and judicial oppression,”
Chuang said.
“But we are surprised that the last part [judiciary oppression] came so
quickly,” he said, adding that the SID might even try to summon DPP politicians,
including Tsai, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former council
chairperson Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥), for questioning before election day.
At a separate setting in the afternoon, Liu confirmed the SIP had arrived at the
fund’s office a day earlier to retrieve documents related to the Yu Chang
Biologics investment case.
The SIP has also had access to the documents about two other companies — Taiwan
Biopharmaceuticals Co (南華生技) and TaiMed Biotech Fund (台懋生技創投) — that had once
applied for funding from the NFD on their “strange” connections with the Yu
Chang deal, Liu added.
LIU’S REACTION
When asked for her reaction to being sued by the DPP, Liu said she had to
confront it, but added that it was a political move on the DPP’s part.
“The things I have done were part of my responsibilities to the legislature and
I have never violated administrative neutrality,” Liu said.
Meanwhile, the DPP yesterday also filed a lawsuit against Tsai Ling-yi (蔡令怡),
wife of Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), for allegedly spreading false statements and
violating election laws.
At a KMT rally in Penghu on Sunday, Tsai Ling-yi said Tsai Ing-wen had
transferred public funds of NT$1.1 billion (US$36.3 million) to the accounts of
her family businesses, DPP spokesperson Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成) said.
Those comments violated election laws, which prohibit false statements for the
purpose of getting a candidate elected or impeding a person’s election chances,
Kang said.
Tsai Ling-yi said last night she “could have cited incorrect information.”
When asked by reporters whether she would apologize for the remark, she said:
“If I have used incorrect information, I would apologize.”
Additional reporting by Amy Su
|
