The legislature has passed the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Monday called the bill’s passage a milestone in Taiwan’s democracy. Thanks to its legislative majority, the DPP was able to get the bill passed after an 11-hour review.
Under the law, passed Monday, assets obtained by political parties and their affiliate organizations after 1945 are illegal and must be returned to the state. This does not include party membership fees and political donations. The DPP government is also planning to set up a Cabinet-level committee to deal with the KMT’s assets so as to respond to public expectations on the enforcement of “transitional justice.”
President Tsai Ing-wen, who is concurrently DPP chairwoman, said the law is a major step forward in Taiwan’s democracy as it creates a fair environment for competition among political parties.
But the opposition KMT has vowed to protect the party’s rights through the legal system. KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu accused the government of political persecution. Hung said any laws targeting on a particular group are unconstitutional, adding that the law violates the principle of non-retroactivity and the presumption of innocence. Hung, who took the reins of the unpopular and divided KMT in March, said however that losing party assets is not as bad as losing party spirit.
A key figure who has been involved with the investigation into KMT’s assets since 2000 is Huang Huang-hsiung, a formal Control Yuan member. The Control Yuan is Taiwan’s highest watchdog body. Huang said there are no exact figures on how much KMT assets are worth, though he put a rough estimate at NT$20 billion or about US$660 million.
When Huang was a DPP lawmaker back in 1993, he and 52 other lawmakers introduced the first-ever statute governing political party assets. The statute, which was aimed at preventing government money from being funneled into political parties, failed due to political pressure.