July 18, 2020 by the Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) has reiterated the serious unsuitability of the list of nominees of the Control Yuan and its firm opposition to the list. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should not have proposed such a list and tried to force it through at the Republic of China (ROC) Legislative Yuan.
Out of the 27 nominees for Control Yuan members, 24 have close ties with the DPP. Some on the nomination list, such as CHEN Chu (陳菊), KAO Yung-cheng (高涌誠), TSAI Chung-I (蔡崇義), LAI Cheng-chang (賴振昌), and YEH Yi-jin (葉宜津), have been in the past involved in obvious scandals or, ironically, have been continuously calling for the abolishment of the Control Yuan – particularly Chen Chu, the nominee of the President of the Control Yuan.
The KMT points out that Chen Chu worked under President TSAI Ing-wen as Secretary-General of the ROC Presidential Office, which made impartiality impossible if Chen Chu is to head the Control Yuan, the country’s top watchdog body. The duty-free cigarette smuggling scandal in which Chen Chu has been involved during President Tsai’s overseas visit in July 2019 is still currently under investigation. During Chen Chu’s tenure as Mayor of Kaohsiung City, the City Government was many times involved in acts of bribery and corruption.
A total of 105 cases of corruption and forgery were brought to the courts, and 194 people were prosecuted, not to mention critical investigations have been under way into the probable misuse of the donations for the “731 Gas Explosion Incident” and the Ching Fu (慶富) Shipbuilding Co. scandal (the company used false documents to fake 4 capital increases required under the loan’s terms, and many believe Chen Chu played a role).
The KMT also stresses that Kao Yung-cheng and Tsai Chung-i have a record of threatening judges and prosecutors, and that Lai did not handle the issue of his own illegal constructions in Taipei City until it was revealed to the public after the nomination of the Control Yuan members. Allowing these nominees to go through would bring shame to Taiwan’s democratic values and the legitimacy of the Control Yuan.
To the public’s disappointment, during a chaotic and incomplete session at the ROC Legislative Yuan, the DPP in a brutal attempt pushed this list of the ineligible nominees to the vote on July 17 and claimed Chen Chu’s nomination has been confirmed by the majority of the legislators. This amounts to a shameful violation of Taiwan’s democracy.
On July 14, the beginning of the incomplete reviewing session, YU Shyi-kun (游錫堃), the President (Speaker) of the Legislative Yuan, asked hundreds of policemen to safeguard Chen Chu, a lady with no official capacity in the government, at the Legislative Yuan. These policemen obstructed the moves of the KMT legislators who wanted to block Chen Chu from entering the chamber. The last time when the Speaker called the police to restrain legislators’ freedom was in 1992. The KMT calls the decision to deploy policemen hindering KMT legislators “democratic recession” and opposes any measures that limit legislators’ lawful actions within the Legislative Yuan.
On July 16, the Legislative Yuan began to review the list of nominees of the Control Yuan. The review proceedings was fraught with cheating and was a clear violation of the procedural rules of the Legislative Yuan. When YU Shyi-kun tried to put the incomplete review to the vote, the DPP legislator CHEN Ying (陳瑩) was not present in the legislative chamber at that time, but instead was pre-recording a TV program miles away. However, some staff members of the Legislative Yuan handed over a Chen Ying’s ballot card, and another legislator illicitly entered Chen Ying’s vote into the system. Legislators must be physically present in order to directly exercise their voting power. Chen Ying did not deny her absence on July 16. The press release issued by the Legislative Yuan on July 17 also confirmed that Chen Ying did not attend the voting. Evidently, despite her absence, a DPP legislator could still get Chen Ying’s ballot card and voted under her name.
As a result, the KMT strongly insists that the vote on July 16 be invalid as it violated the procedural rules of the Legislative Yuan and that this misconduct be made known to all and fully investigated by the judiciary. Furthermore, the KMT holds that the vote on July 17 to approve the nomination is invalid as well, because Chen Chu did not report at the Legislative Yuan and the 113 legislators did not complete the reviewing process. In the face of a constitutional crisis, the KMT will never accept Chen Chu – a loyal DPP politician with questionable impartiality of the position, obvious implication in several pending trials, and a belief that the Control Yuan should be abolished – is the president of the Control Yuan!
