Chateau Fire Exposes More of Ma's Corruption

Grass Mountain Chateau

Grass Mountain Chateau (GMC, 草山行館), which was the first Presidential residence after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) escaped to Taiwan in 1949, was burned to the ground in a fire of unknown origin on April 7 of this year. Although some materials found among the debris raises the suspecion of arson, the real cause of fire is still undetermined.

The current political environment in Taiwan is filled with the calls of "de-Chiang-ization" (去蔣化), which is a movement to eradicate the God-like figure of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) that was painted by the authoritarian KMT government over the past 60 plus years. The movement includes renaming of many state-owned organizations, removal of numerous Chiang's status all over Taiwan, etc.

Naturally, elites of the old authoritarian KMT and their successors fought back furiously. Under this intense political spot light, up goes Chiang's first lodge in a blaze. In no time has it sparked a huge intensification of the current political conflict. Especially, pan-blue politicians are wasting no time looking for evidence to blame this fire on the anti-Chiang movement.

They conveniently forgot what the history should have taught them again and again: whatever conspiracy theories they cook up against the pan-greens, it always backfires and hurts them seriously. Rising from the ashes of the conspiracy theory about "burning GMC as part of anti-Chiang movement" is the discovery that Ma, during his term as Taipei Mayor, violated rules and ignored laws via a contract between GMC management contract winner and the Taipei City Government to benefit his Taipei City Government employee.

Grass Mountain Chateau

Map of northern Taiwan showing the location of Grass Mountain Chateau

An article in the Taipei Times describes the Chateau:

The chateau, located in Yangmingshan National Park, was built in 1920 as a vacation home for Japan's Prince Hirohito and later became a summer retreat for dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) after he retreated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to Taiwan in 1949.

Here is another description:

The Taipei City Government took over the administration of the chateau after Chiang died in 1975, registering the building as a monument because of its historical significance. In 2002, it was turned into an arts salon and a museum.

Ma's GMC-related corruption

Remember that Ma Ying-Jeou was elected as Taipei Mayor in 1998.

The Chateau, as a national monument, is protected by law. The local government in whose jurisdiction a national monument resides is responsible for contracting the maintenance and preservation of the national monument to an outside party.

The contract winner of GMC management was the Humanities and Social Sciences of Fo Guang College (佛光人文社會學院). Kung Peng-Cheng (龔鵬程), who represented Fo Guang to sign the contract with Taipei City Government, is a senior consultant employed by Taipei City Government. To state it more clearly, Ma's Taipei City Government gave the contract of managing GMC to his own employee. Legally, this might not be a problem, if no rules were bent.

According to the law, whoever gets the management contract of a national monument should pay monthly management fee to the local government --- in this case, Taipe City.

Taipei City Councilwoman Jian Yu-Yen 台北市議員簡余晏

But the law was completely distorted when it came to Ma's hand. Taipei City Councilwoman Jian Yu-yen (簡余晏) and Councilman Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) pointed out on April 16 that, not only did Ma not ask Fo Gong to pay the required monthly management fee, but also his city government even paid a subsidy to benifit Fo Guang. Fo Guang, as the main contractor of the management, subcontracted the management tasks to several downstream parties and took management fees from them. Fo Guang put these management fees into their own pockets without paying them back to the Taipei City Government.

Taipei City Councilman Lee Ching-feng 台北市議員李慶鋒

Therefore, as a result of Ma's corrupted administration, not only did Taipei City Government illegally paid Fo Guang but also provided Fo Guang the location of a national monument for free --- without charging Fo Guang the management fee, the rent, or even the utilities (all were paid by the citizens of Taipei with their tax money) --- for Fo Guang to run a business that earned profits from subcontractors and visitors.

The corruption of Ma's government doesn't stop here. Upon the expiration of the contract, the Taipei City Government allowed Fo Guang to continue receiving all the illegal benefits --- free land, free Chateau, free utilities, illegal subsidies, and all the illegal earnings --- without signing a new contract or even an extension of the old one.

It's hard to believe that the Taipei City Government - under the administration of Ma Ying-Jeou - can't even manage a simple historical monument legally. The entire process is marked by a series of steps revealing corruption. Like many other previous cases, Ma might, as usual, claim that it's all his subordinates' fault so he doesn't need to shoulder any of the responsibility for this.

The Red Army leader Shih Ming-Teh (施明德) wearing an "anti corruption" shirt

I recall that when Ma was accused earlier this year of putting the Mayor's special allowence fund into his private account, Shih Ming-Teh (施明德), the leader of the Red Army that called for President Chen to step down in the name of 'anti-corruption' last October, responded to the media in regard of Ma's campaign for the Presidency next year,

"We came out to protest the corruption of a President. Now you expect people to vote a corrupt politician into the Office? Should Taiwan be called 'State of Corruption'? "

That's the real question that all blue and red supporters need to ask and answer. As the Presidential election comes closer and closer, I am sure that more and more Ma's corrupt activities will be exposed.

-----
Note: Thanks to Tim Maddog for proofreading

Third attempt to recall Taiwan president Chen fails

On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'
- baseball coach Earl Weaver, ejected from more games than anyone in Major League history

Third time still unlucky
(or maybe it's got nothing to do with luck)
The third attempt in less than six months by Taiwan's opposition pan-blues to recall President Chen Shui-bian, purportedly due to allegations of corruption, has failed miserably. Only 118 legislators voted in favor of recalling Chen, once again falling way short of the 2/3 required for the motion to be put to a public referendum.

Ironically, one of those very people shouting the faux "anti-corruption" slogans in the Legislative Yuan Friday was sentenced the very same day to 19 years in prison for corruption, theft, and breach of trust in relation to amounts over NT$1 billion.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and former Miaoli County Commissioner Her Jyh-huei (何智輝) was convicted on charges related to a NT$1.1 billion loan obtained by using land valued at NT$100 million as collateral. Not so long ago, Her had fled to China to avoid being investigated (he returned in order to form the unconstitutional, kangaroo-court-like "319 Truth Commission" [MORE: 1, 2]), and in an apparent attempt to influence the outcome of his case, registered to become a member of the Legislative Yuan's Judiciary Committee (司法委員會). As recently as 2004, the beleaguered Taipei mayor/KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, currently under investigation for abuse of his "special allowance fund," supported Her's candidacy when running for legislative office, calling him "honest and simple" (淳樸). Birds of a feather and all that.

Third time, still not charmed
According to an article by the AP's Peter Enav in Guardian Unlimited, "lawmakers from Chen's Democratic Progressive Party did not participate in the poll [and] 12 members of the Taiwan Solidarity Union - a DPP ally - deliberately spoiled their ballots" this time. Note the clear partisan lines in addition to Her's conviction on much more serious charges, and you will see that the recall attempts have absolutely nothing to do with opposing corruption.

Give up!
Even though the first attempt came up with 119 votes in favor of the recall, and the second time around only got 116 votes, Chen's stubborn sore-loser opponents just don't know when to throw in the towel. The third attempt got only two more than the second attempt but one vote fewer than the first try, yet the pan-blues are already saying that they want to go for four-in-a-row. Remember, they need 28 more votes than they got this time in order for the motion to pass, and then it has to be put to a public referendum.

Enough, already! Even after 2 months of organized street protests, there is no general support for the anti-Chen crowd's anti-democratic efforts. The pan-blue legislators are also wasting millions, if not billions, of Taiwanese taxpayer dollars by dilly-dallying around in the Legislative Yuan with this nonsense instead of passing legislation to move Taiwan's democracy forward and keep it safe from China's threats.

And don't forget, when you read that President Chen "survived a third recall attempt" in Saturday's papers, it means little more than he "walked on barely warm coals while wearing fireproof boots."

---

Things to remember: Taiwan, 台灣, Chen Shui-bian, 陳水扁, A-bian, 阿扁, Kuomintang, 中國國民黨, KMT, 國民黨, pan-blues, 泛藍, recall, 罷免, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, special allowance fund, 特支費, Her Jyh-huei, 何智輝, Judiciary Committee, 司法委員會, propaganda, 宣傳, corruption, 貪污

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Hopeless quake victims under Ma Ying-Jeou's lead

Two weeks ago I blogged about that Taipei City Ma Ying-Jeou can't solve the problem of a single building in 7 years (here). Today the survivors of Tong-Hsing Building, the only building of Taipei that collapsed in 921 earthquake 7 years ago, still see no hope that Ma is capable of giving them any help. According to this report,

Four years after 921 quake, Taipei City Government appropriated more than 400 million dollars (~ 1.3 million US dollars) for rebuilding (Tong-Hsing). The builder pocketed it and escaped by claiming bankruptcy. Public Works Departments of Taipei City Government (台北市政府工務局) then started over the whole process of building applications again. But then, again, the budget was put into private pocket by the new builder. In total more than 1 billion dollars went into private pocket of two builders, leaving no hope for the rebuild.
(4年後台北市政府撥款補助重建，先被營建商惡性倒閉捲款4億多元逃跑，工務局重新審核，新營建公司又爆出跳票數億元停工，兩次東星大樓被包商A走近10億元公帑，新家卻遙遙無期)

Read the lines carefully -- it took Ma Ying-Jeou's government 4 years to appropriate the fund for rebuilding. At the year Ma appropriated that fund, Taipei County Government, run by Su Chen-Chang (蘇貞昌), had already finished the rebuild of a collapsed building that was down in 921 too (see my previous post).

And when the fund was finally appropriated, it went into private pocket, repeatedly. It surprises me why Taipei citizens can tolerate such a corruption and still think that Ma is capable of running for president. Do they even care to ask Ma, "Is there something called LAW in Taipei?"

It seems to me that to be a Taipei Citizen, you'd better hope that nothing bad happens to you. If it does, you are on your own.

921 quake victims still suffer, thanks to Mayor Ma

It's the 7th anniversary of 921 earthquake disaster yesterday. On September 21st, 1999, a huge earthquake struck mid-Taiwan, resulted in tremendous loss of lives and wealth. Many buildings collapsed, and even geography was changed.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find any news media over the net talking about this disaster. Comparing to the way American mourn their loss in 911, Taiwanese seem relatively absent-minded (or, cold-blooded?).

I can only find a report that is remotely related to 921: 921 7th anniversity, Tong-Hsing residents: belated justice is not in sight . In Taipei, far away from the epicenter, Tong-Hsing building ("East Star" building, 東星大樓) was the only one building that collapsed during 921. It resulted in the loss of 87 lives. What is ironic is, it has been 7 years, yet the government led by Ma Ying-jeou couldn't even solve the issue of a single building. Not only the building hasn't been rebuilt yet, but also the compensation to the victims is still pending.

In contrary to Ma's impotence, a collapsed building located in Taipei Country has been rebuilt 4 years ago.

Here are some paragraphs:

921七週年 東星住戶：等不到遲來正義
921 7th anniversity, Tong-Hsing residents: belated justice is not in sight

中央社 2006-09-21 12:51
（中央社記者林長順台北二十一日電）九二一大地震在今天屆滿七週年，台北市唯一倒塌的東星大樓至今尚未重建完成，受災戶提出的國家賠償訴訟也仍無結果。罹難者家屬陳建華指出，他們的處境像是被正義遺棄的孤兒，活著的人竟比死去的八十七位親人更傷痛。
It's the 7th anniversary of 921 earthquake. The only building that collapsed in Taipei hasn't yet been rebuilt, the national compensation to the victims' family is still pending. Chen Jian-Hua (陳建華), victim's family, said that their situation is like the orphans abandoned by justice, living is worst than the 87 victims who died in the event.

「東星人不是外星人！」母親與小弟在這場災難中喪生的陳建華說，九二一已經過去七年了，台北縣災難原址重建的「龍閣」早已蓋好，東星災民多等了四年，卻還只能在舊址淋雨。
"Tong-Hsing residents are not spacemen!" Chen, who lost his mother and younger brother in 921, said that 7 years has past since 921. Long-Ger (龍閣), a building that collapsed in Taipei County during 921, has long been rebuilt, but waiting for 4 extra years (after Long-Ger's rebuild), Tong-Hsing residents are still suffering the rain shower in the old debris.

陳建華指出，九二一大地震帶給受災戶及罹難者家屬太多無法撫平的遺憾。「我們的骨肉分離、家園破碎，尤其漫長繁複的國賠訴訟過程，如果沒有鄭文龍與蔡志揚律師義務協助，根本沒有機會在法院一、二審獲判國賠勝訴。」
Chen said, 921 has brought to the victims' family too much unforgotten sorrow. "Family separated, home broken, especially the long and complicated process of national compensation court, if not for the volunteer aid of lawyers Cheng Wen-Long() and Tsai Chih-Yang(), we didn't have chance to win the district court."

不過，在七周年前夕，最高法院於九月十四日將國賠案發回高院更審，讓東星受災戶遭受晴天霹靂的重擊。陳建華說，「經過七年等不到遲來的正義，我們像是弱勢的外星人，也是被司法正義遺棄的孤兒。」他認為東星大樓的八十七位「捨身菩薩」至今無法安息。
However, in the eve of the 7th anniversary, the Supreme Court denied the national compensation and issued a re-consideration, which delivered a huge impact on Tong-Hsing residents. Chen said, "Wait for 7 years for the belated justice, we are like the helpless spacemen, like orphans abandoned by justice." He thinks that the 87 victims can not rest in peace even today.

陳建華表示，台北市政府工務局 (Public Works Departments of Taipei City Government) 因審照不實，造成廠商偷工減料，使東星大樓瞬間毀滅性倒塌，已經讓罹難者家屬流盡了眼淚，而另一項打擊，讓受災戶傷痛加深。
According to Chen, Public Works Departments of Taipei City Government didn't carry out the building code, allowing the construction company chances to use cheaper materials, resulted in the sudden deadly collapse of Tong-Hsing building. It already caused the survivors to run out of their tears. The current impact (the pending of national compensation) causes even more harm to the victim family.

As Ma has been beautified by media for years, people always think of Ma Ying-Jeou as the most promising candidate for the 2008 president campaign. Can you imagine handing over the entire country to a politician who can't even solve the issue of one single building for 7 years ?