Ma Respects Lee Yuan-tseh’s Support for Frank Hsieh

Ma Ying-jeou Campaign Headquarters Press Release
January 23, 2008

Ma Respects Lee Yuan-tseh’s Support for Frank Hsieh



(Former Academia Sinica President) Lee Yuan-tseh granted an interview to a Japanese newspaper, saying that he would support (DPP Presidential candidate) Frank Hsieh. KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou’s spokesperson Lo Chih-chiang said it was no surprise that Lee would support Hsieh, considering he had supported President Chen Shui-bian in the two previous Presidential elections, “In a democratic society, everyone is free to support whoever he wants to support. Mr. Ma has complete respect for such a choice,” added Lo.

Lo said, “If Mr. Lee criticized people around President Chen for their involvement in corruption scandals, I wonder why he failed to notice the many corruption cases Hsieh was involved in. The cases are so many that almost every prosecutor in the Special Investigation Unit is taking part in the investigation. When Hsieh was Kaohsiung Mayor, the number of top executives in the city government involved in corruption scandals reached an all-time high in the DPP’s history. It seems strange to me that Lee did not notice that.”

Lo went on to say, “I would like to remind Mr. Lee that President Chen had not been involved in major corruption scandals until after he became President. When Chen was Taipei Mayor, rumors of him being involved in any major corruption scandals were almost unheard of. Hsieh, by comparison, was a completely different case. He is second to none in the DPP in terms of the number of scandals he’s involved in during his tenure as Kaohsiung Mayor. Those under Hsieh, including Deputy Mayor Hou Ho-shong, Civil Affairs Bureau director Wang Wen-cheng, Urban Development Bureau director Wu Meng-the, Fire Bureau director Chen Kun-chang, and Finance Bureau director Kenneth Lin, have all been indicted or convicted during their terms of office in Kaohsiung City or later in the Cabinet.”

According to Lo, while Chen has disappointed many with his lack of integrity as President, Chen as Taipei Mayor was much better than Hsieh as Kaohsiung Mayor in terms of integrity. “Mr. Lee surely knows something about President Chen’s corruption. I wonder why he fails to see the corruption scandals involving Hsieh and his previous subordinates,” said Lo.

“Mr. Lee says one of the reasons he supports Hsieh is that he believes Hsieh is more competent than Ma. Does he mean that Hsieh is better at corruption than Ma? If so, I believe Mr. Ma would gladly accept his ‘defeat,’ as he is certainly no match for Hsieh when it comes to corruption,” said Lo.

“If Mr. Lee was referring to the ability to run a city, then I suggest that Mr. Lee spend some time living in Kaohsiung City. He might end up looking at things in a different way. I have here some facts and figures for Mr. Lee to think about. When Ma was in charge, Taipei City’s unemployment rate was the country’s lowest. Kaohsiung City under Hsieh, on the contrary, had the country’s highest unemployment rate. I think this would tell the difference between the two. When Ma was in charge, Taipei City government had the highest integrity rating among local governments, while Hsieh’s Kaohsiung City government had the lowest integrity rating. Ma created the Neihu Science Park which generates an annual revenue of NT$ 2.3 trillion, while Hsieh’s Cheng-gong Logistics Park and Hsiaokang Airfreight Park, which cost close to ten billion NTD, are being left unused and almost abandoned. Isn’t this a more reasonable way of comparing the two?” said Lo.

Speaking of the remediation work for the Love River, which Hsieh proudly claims as one of his greatest achievements, Lo said, “The Love River measures over 10 km in length. While Hsieh had successfully improved the condition of a 5-km stretch downstream from ‘serious contamination’ to ‘moderate contamination,’ the mid section of the river and the up stream section are still plagued by serious contamination. Ma, on the other hand, had improved the entirety of the Keelung River inside Taipei City. Ma improved the conditions of the 22-km section of the Keelung River, while Hsieh’s task merely involved 5 km. Now perhaps Mr. Lee would care to tell us exactly who is more competent?”

Lee also said he supported Hsieh because he believed it was important to let Hsieh lead the Executive branch against the Legislature, where the KMT holds the majority. Lo said, “If Lee’s point stands, then why is it that the DPP government kept complaining about problems resulting from ‘minority ruling party and majority opposition parties’ over the past eight years? Haven’t the people suffered enough in the past eight years from the political standoff caused by a minority President? If Hsieh were elected President, the ruling party would have an extremely small representation in the Legislature, as opposed to the extremely large representation of opposition parties. How can Mr. Lee allow the people to suffer for four more years? Mr. Lee should realize that it is a normal practice in democratic countries for a party to concurrently hold a parliamentary majority and executive power. Such a practice would be helpful in building an efficient administration. This is the basic knowledge in politics. Mr. Lee should also realize that Taiwan is a democratic country. The people have made their choice by granting the KMT the legislative majority, which might be perceived as a slap in the DPP’s face. The people’s ballots are the most powerful weapon to keep the government in check. Mr. Lee seems to forget that the people can always throw the KMT out of office with their ballots if the KMT government turns out to be a huge disappointment. Besides, the KMT will also be subject to the scrutiny of the media and the opinion circles.”

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