An Underreported Scandel

It seems a bit of scandal affecting both blue and green has not gotten the attention it deserves. Here's the article from the fanatically green Taipei Times. I couldn't locate an article from the rabidly blue China Times about this topic, but that might say more about my poor Internet search skills than about the politically biased coverage of the paper. The article speaks of charges that a fugitive businessman has made "payments" to national legislators (of both parties). If an investigation proves that the politicians have taken money from the businessman, pictured here, then the question must be "why?"--why was the money offered, and why did they take it? The other "why?" of course is why do the people continue to vote for politicians with questionable ethics?

KMT Caucus Urges Probe into Payment Allegations
By Flora Wang Published in the Taipei Times, Saturday, Mar 29, 2008, Page 4

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus acting Secretary-General Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) yesterday urged prosecutors to probe a media allegation that 12 incumbent and former legislators and a religious figure received a large amount of money from Wang You-theng (王又曾), the fugitive founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).

Hsieh urged prosecutors to complete the investigation as soon as possible to clarify the matter.

He said KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), who was allegedly among the 12 legislators, would cooperate with investigation.

The caucus' press conference came after a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday that said Wang had secretly paid a total of NT$5.6 billion (US$184 million) to the legislators between 1999 and 2006.

The newspaper claimed it had obtained a 30-page copy of Wang's remittance details, which it said prosecutors copied from Wang's personal notebook.

The report alleged that the money was paid to 13 people -- including Kuo, KMT legislators Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Liu Shen-liang (劉盛良), Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) Legislator Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤), former independent legislator Lo Fu-chu (羅福助), former KMT legislator Ho Chih-hui (何智輝), former NPSU legislator Tsai Hau (蔡豪) and former Democratic Progressive Party legislators Wang Tuoh (王拓), Lin Wen-lang (林文郎) and Tu Wen-ching (杜文卿).

The money they individually received ranged from NT$268.5 million to NT$1.5 million, the report said, but it did not mention details of why they received the money.

Kuo yesterday dismissed the allegations.

"He [Wang] did not wire any money to my bank accounts, nor did I ever receive any money from him," Kuo said.