KRTC 3: Another one bites the dust
The DPP has been keeping a low profile for weeks now, battered by the still-snowballing Kaohsiung MRT scandal, previously discussed here and here. With legislative elections a month away, the DPP is on the run with problems nicely summarized here.
This week saw another high-ranking official in the DPP Presidential Office further brought down by corruption charges. 陳哲男 Chen Che-nan, a senior ex-advisor to ROC President 陳水扁 Chen Shui-bian, has been caught blatantly lying about a trip to a Korean casino with a former vice chairman of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. (alt link here) Chen was forced to resign earlier this month under pressure. Oddly enough, Chen flew to Korea out of Thailand, not from Taiwan. That meant there were no records in Taiwan of where he was going. All this sounds more and more like a kickback from a Thai company. After all, the KRTC placed an ad in an obscure local newspaper and then turned around and awarded the contract to Thai company when no one responded. That takes friends and lots of presents.
Chen made several trips with his buddy from the KRTC to Thailand to choose contractors for the Thai laborers. We know that he went to Thailand, but he's denied that he was there to talk about laborers. Chen was still a senior advisor at the time; if he went somewhere, it was on orders from the supposedly innocent President. No less than two days after the story broke, the DPP made preparations to expel Chen, and he's just resigned from the party under pressure. The party pressure is a good sign, showing that there are still some principled, good people in the DPP. The party is going to need people like this to stand up to CSB and his power-brokers, and help the party to reform.
The investigations continue, and with the waning of Chen's heavy-handed influence will hopefully try to explain some other important issues that were previously buried; maybe they can start with why each Kaohsiung MRT car costs NT$20,000,000 more than than one in Taipei, and why there have been 3 collapses from sub-standard concrete since construction began.
Also, a tidbit for all of you that still believe the DPP stands for freedom of the press. The DPP-controlled Government Information Office (GIO), the national media oversight board threatened by a new communication bill, has struck again. As an encore to its cancellation of the licenses of unfriendly television stations in August, the GIO accused a television station of being controlled by China. It has begun an investigation aimed at revoking the offending station's license. Coincidentally, the station under investigation is TVBS, the network that broke the Chen Che-nan story.
This week saw another high-ranking official in the DPP Presidential Office further brought down by corruption charges. 陳哲男 Chen Che-nan, a senior ex-advisor to ROC President 陳水扁 Chen Shui-bian, has been caught blatantly lying about a trip to a Korean casino with a former vice chairman of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. (alt link here) Chen was forced to resign earlier this month under pressure. Oddly enough, Chen flew to Korea out of Thailand, not from Taiwan. That meant there were no records in Taiwan of where he was going. All this sounds more and more like a kickback from a Thai company. After all, the KRTC placed an ad in an obscure local newspaper and then turned around and awarded the contract to Thai company when no one responded. That takes friends and lots of presents.
Chen made several trips with his buddy from the KRTC to Thailand to choose contractors for the Thai laborers. We know that he went to Thailand, but he's denied that he was there to talk about laborers. Chen was still a senior advisor at the time; if he went somewhere, it was on orders from the supposedly innocent President. No less than two days after the story broke, the DPP made preparations to expel Chen, and he's just resigned from the party under pressure. The party pressure is a good sign, showing that there are still some principled, good people in the DPP. The party is going to need people like this to stand up to CSB and his power-brokers, and help the party to reform.
The investigations continue, and with the waning of Chen's heavy-handed influence will hopefully try to explain some other important issues that were previously buried; maybe they can start with why each Kaohsiung MRT car costs NT$20,000,000 more than than one in Taipei, and why there have been 3 collapses from sub-standard concrete since construction began.
Also, a tidbit for all of you that still believe the DPP stands for freedom of the press. The DPP-controlled Government Information Office (GIO), the national media oversight board threatened by a new communication bill, has struck again. As an encore to its cancellation of the licenses of unfriendly television stations in August, the GIO accused a television station of being controlled by China. It has begun an investigation aimed at revoking the offending station's license. Coincidentally, the station under investigation is TVBS, the network that broke the Chen Che-nan story.
posted by Taiwan's Other Side at 12:36 AM
2 Comments:
TVBS is owned by TVB(HK), a HK tycoon called Run Run Shaw.
(Shaw Bros Movies of 1960/70s) They were a lot closer to KMT than CCP.
This reminds me of the event when the ultra-right in US accused Li Kashing as communist, when his company bid for Panama Canal Contaniner Terminal Business.
That would be the same deal of which 10% was owned by a Chinese gov't ministry, right? And the Li that has a huge stake in China Telecom and works closely with powerful "princes"?
TOS, you should adjust the display on your blog (in the settings menu) so that it shows more articles. Right now I can only see two.
Michael
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