The Control Yuan has opened a preliminary inquiry into Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an's eldest son's selection for a city exchange-student programme, drawing Kuomintang accusations of state interference in the mayoral race. Asked at a forum on September 9 whether the inquiries had been commissioned by the central government, Chiang replied with a proverb, "The gentleman is open and at ease; the petty man is forever anxious," CNA reported.
What is the Control Yuan examining? The city's education department, in an account carried by PTS, said the Control Yuan phoned its ethics office last week to ask about the programme's procedures, who approved it and whether the student had completed the required disclosures. The Control Yuan said it had opened the procedure under the conflict-of-interest recusal law for public servants to establish at what level the programme was approved and whether identity disclosure was made, with no political considerations. It handles all such cases involving public servants through preliminary procedures, regardless of party, CNA reported.
What does the KMT allege? KMT city councillors, in remarks carried by PTS, faulted the Control Yuan for phoning the city government while it has no sitting members and questioned whether state machinery was intervening in the election. Taipei councillor Liu Tsai-wei asked why every recent preliminary procedure had "so coincidentally" converged on Chiang and his 15-year-old son.
What do Chiang and the DPP's mayoral candidate say? Chiang, in remarks carried by PTS, said the Control Yuan should know very well how to exercise its statutory powers, and that he had followed procedure and made clear in the paperwork that he is the student's father and a city official. Puma Shen, the DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate, said that if interpreting the law counts as "the state machinery moving," no regulator in Taiwan would need to do its job, calling it "very, very inappropriate" to deliberately stoke such feelings during an election.
What does the DPP caucus say? Chuang Jui-hsiung, the DPP legislative caucus whip, said the Control Yuan does not have a single member and urged the KMT to stop shifting focus by recasting oversight of public officials as a state-machinery siege, CNA reported. Without members it cannot form its integrity committee, he said, so it cannot issue a ruling unless the Legislative Yuan confirms nominees. Chiang had told critics to come at him, Chuang said, and the scrutiny now falls on Chiang, not his son.
