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Taiwan’s ruling party expels legislator over lobbying scandal
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Taiwan’s Kuomintang party is to expel Wang Jin-pyng, head of the island’s legislative body, for his alleged involvement in a lobbying scandal.
The decision was made at yesterday’s disciplinary meeting of the ruling KMT party. Wang attended the meeting and submitted a statement to explain his situation.
Without KMT membership, Wang will lose his qualification as a legislator and will no longer chair the legislative body.
At a press conference before the meeting, Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan leader and KMT chairman, said Wang was no longer suitable to lead the legislative body.
If the KMT failed to expel Wang or dismiss him from his post as a legislator, the authority of justice and law would be further undermined, Ma told reporters.
Last week, investigators from Taiwan’s procuratorial agency revealed that Wang was suspected of lobbying Tseng Yung-fu, then head of the island’s justice authority, for prosecutors not to appeal in a case involving Ker Chien-ming, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, so that Ker could be acquitted. Tseng resigned after the news broke.
Wang denied the accusations on Tuesday after returning from Malaysia, where he had been organizing his daughter’s wedding ceremony.
Despite harsh statements made about Wang’s scandal in the past few days, Ma said he had not asked Wang to step down and hoped that he would resign so as to protect the image of the party.
However, he said he was disappointed with Wang’s statement and had been “left with no option but to step forward to face a cardinal issue of right and wrong.”
Wang said in his Tuesday statement that he phoned Tseng and Taiwan’s chief prosecutor, but the calls were only made to remind them of legislative body decisions on efforts to curb abuse of prosecutors’ powers to appeal.
He also questioned the means of evidence collection as the information had been collected through wiretapping.
Also in his statement, Wang warned that a partial conviction could jeopardize party unity or even cause the party to fall apart, eventually leading to the party’s loss of governance advantages.
In response to Wang’s call for party unity, Ma said yesterday this unity should be based on integrity, diligence and care for people.
“As KMT chairman, I have to make a clear stand,” he said.
Later yesterday, Wang said he would appeal the decision through proper channels.
The 72-year-old was a KMT heavyweight known for his grass-roots influence, and his removal has sent shockwaves through the island’s political circles.
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