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KMT to blame for controversial vote:
DPP’s Ker
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Citizen’s Congress Watch
supporters protest outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday against an
amendment to the Accounting Act that decriminalizes some irregular uses of
public funds. The amendment was passed late on Friday last week.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should
be held accountable for an amendment that decriminalizes the involvement of
elected officials, professors and staff at colleges and academic institutions
involved in irregularities in the use of public funds, Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.
The public has criticized the DPP for being an “accomplice” in the passage of an
amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法) in the legislature at midnight on Friday,
with Ker singled out by fellow DPP lawmakers for “unilaterally offering the
DPP’s endorsement without the consent of the entire caucus.”
“Everyone should understand that the amendment was submitted by the KMT because
a number of high-ranking KMT officials, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
(王金平), were involved in misuse of public funds,” Ker told a press conference.
The amendment’s passage has been described by critics as a “midnight ambush.”
The legislation would exonerate former independent legislator and Taichung
County Council speaker Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who is serving a
three-and-a-half-year prison term for misusing public funds and other councilors
facing similar charges.
It would also clear about 700 university professors, including National Taiwan
University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who are under investigation for
misusing receipts to claim government reimbursements.
Although the public has criticized all four parties that endorsed the initiative
in a closed-door negotiation for Yen’s imminent release, most of the criticism
has fallen on the DPP.
The DPP’s priority was to help professors and other academics, but “politics is
always about making compromises,” which was why local councilors were also
included in the amendment, Ker said.
Ker said he raised the issue of the decriminalizing the misuse presidential
state funds, which would apply to former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁)
involvement in a corruption case, but the KMT lawmakers had turned down the
idea.
“I don’t know why the KMT, the ruling party with a legislative majority,
suddenly seems to have vanished from the public’s view and everyone is talking
about holding the DPP accountable,” he added.
He denied that he made the decision to back the amendment unilaterally, saying
he had discussed it with other DPP lawmakers in the caucus meeting on Friday
morning and no one had voiced opposition at the time.
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), who has been the most prominent critic of
Ker’s actions on the vote, said he was not at the caucus meeting.
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