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Updated Friday, December 16, 2011 0:18 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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DPP officials may be justified in smear campaign accusations

The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party may be justified to claim that there is a smear campaign behind the TaiMed allegations against its chairwoman and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen.

The timing of the case and a blunder by the country's top economics official in an attempt to prove Tsai corrupt have all fueled the speculations and allegations that the ruling Kuomintang is running a smear campaign to dampen the DPP hopeful's chances of winning the presidency.

Tsai may have to answer some of the questions raised in controversy, but it is a very dubious act of her accusers to blow the whistle just about a month ahead of the election day.

It is not a case of revealing secret operations although some of its files were classified as “top secrets” because of negotiation purposes.

According to the allegations, it is a case of conflict of interest when Tsai took up the leadership of TaiMed Biologics's board of directors a few months after stepping down as vice premier in 2007.

TaiMed (which was then called Yu Chang Biologics) had investments from the government that were approved when Tsai was still vice premier.

This is a well-established fact, and if there had been anything irregular during the process of approving the state investment and Tsai's assuming the position of company leader, the government should have taken actions long ago.

But it has not until this week. Had the government — whose rule the KMT has taken over in May 2008 — been deliberately turning a blind eye to something allegedly illegal, waiting for the “right” moment to expose it? Or perhaps there was nothing irregular about the TaiMed project.

On Monday, Christina Liu, minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), claimed that she had documents that proved Tsai was the government official in charge of TaiMed project, and therefore she violated the “revolving door” regulations when she became head of the company after leaving the Cabinet office.

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Comments

December 16, 2011 Harry Lee from sts2000@

12/15/11
Subject: Smear campaign against White Collar Crime
I agree this is a Smear campaign, but it is a serious matter since White Collar Crime may be committed; so one should not be sent to Taiwan “White” house.
1. Using early “two documents” (March 2007) by Christina Liu was a mistake since these two documents shows only “INTENTION”
2. “ACTION” can speak well for the character of Miss Tsai, as she requested “two infusions of capital from the Government” in February just before the change of Guards in Taiwan.
3. Tsai needs to explain why she was so desperate at the moment to dump “public fund” into her hand which people in Taiwan deserve the right to know
4. I wish whoever in charge of “smear campaign” needs to better “Home Work” by looking at whole spectrum of events, which really amaze average IQ.
Harry Lee

December 16, 2011 mtsai16@

This smear campaign could punish either the KMT or the DPP. The PFP should gain as it is above the fray.

It seems that the KMT has upped the ante, going for broke.

I find it interesting that the incumbent chose to bring this issue to light at this point in time, within one month of the election. If Ma thought that Tsai had violated the “revolving door” regulations, he had plenty of time to call her out since then and take care of his imminent political threat.

Common sense tells us that this smear campaign is pre-meditated. Will it turn out to be a calculated victory for the KMT or another sympathy vote-getter for the DPP?

December 17, 2011 y.b.chen@

It is sensitive timing, yes, but one must not ignore the risk that if Tsai is elected president, a new gov’t might order the whole files to be destroyed, so there might not ever be any investigation in the future at all, and the public will never know the truth. If Tsai is innocent, she might very well end up winning the election and Ma will lose, so let's hurry up and proceed with the investigation.