KMT cashola & the "who's dirtier" contest

Taipei Times has the story on the KMT's latest declaration of remaining assets:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is nearly 80 times richer -- in total asset terms -- than the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), figures from the Ministry of the Interior show.

The KMT has assets worth more than NT$27 billion (US$821 million), while the DPP's assets amount to nearly NT$339 million.

In a rare peek at hard numbers from political parties' financial statements, some surprising information about the top parties appeared on the ministry's Web site yesterday (www.moi.gov.tw/home/home.asp).

Although it is no secret that the KMT possesses copious assets -- much of which its critics allege it plundered after Taiwan ceased to be a Japanese colony -- it might surprise some to know that the DPP's income for last year was more than double that of the KMT.

The DPP earned NT$661 million while the KMT pulled in a little more than NT$301 million.

In terms of net assets, the KMT boasts 100 times more asset value, or roughly NT$25.5 billion, to the DPP's nearly NT$253 million, the records show.

But the KMT is also saddled with more debt, nearly NT$1.6 billion as of last year, compared with the DPP's nearly NT$86 million.

Now the thing about party assets is people are always talking about different things. You could be talking about what the KMT brought with them to Taiwan from China (its hard to find a good cite-able source including values, but they took all the gold they could).

You could also be talking about what was acquired while on the island, often questionably or outright illegally. You might be talking about all the assets they later sold to friends, occasionally at fractions of the market price. And some people are talking about what's left over.

=============

Also, the DPP is going to try and get Ma involved in a few more scandals. Here's the news from Taipei Times and Taiwan News. I'll quote from Taiwan News:

With the presidential election almost nine months away, the governing Democratic Progressive Party yesterday formed a task force aimed at exposing scandals allegedly involving by Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the presidential candidate of the main opposition Kuomintang.

The task force constitutes DPP's legislators and Taipei City councilors, who would examine Ma from his tenure as Taipei City mayor between 1998 and 2006 through his party chairmanship and expose any scandals in which Ma might have been involved.

DPP caucus leader Wang Sing-nan said yesterday at a press conference that it was unfair that while the special investigation team had not looked into any of the numerous alleged wrongdoings that had involved Ma besides the special mayoral allowance case, the team had revived investigations into the old cases that had implicated the DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

Such a task force may or may not actually be able to damage Ma's reputation, but I find it rather depressing anyway. I also want the DPP to be able to beat Ma without a lawsuit hanging around his neck. That way it'll be harder for the blue voters to cry foul or think they were cheated.