By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) official of making inappropriate comments about a deceased DPP member and demanded that he apologize.
Chen Ming-yi (陳明義), a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, suggested in a political talk show on Nov. 23 that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) may have “fabricated” a story about her meeting the previous day with the dying Lin Lung-cheng (林龍成) to gain the public’s sympathy.
Tsai told supporters in a speech on the morning of Nov. 23, before registering for the Jan. 14 presidential election, that she had held Lin’s hands and promised to win the election before Lin passed away several hours later.
“We asked Chen and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who serves as the KMT chairman, to apologize for the inhumane comments,” DPP spokesperson Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成) said at a press conference in Taipei.
Lin, who passed away at 38, worked as an assistant to Hualien County Councilor Liu Hsiao-mei (劉曉玫) for more than seven years.
He had to be given two shots in the arm before meeting Tsai because he was in a very weak condition, said Liu, who attended the press conference with Lin’s wife, Shen Shu-hui (沈淑惠).
Liu said she heard about Chen’s comments on Nov. 23 and posted a video clip on her Facebook page the next day to prove the meeting took place.
“Both of us hoped it was not true — that our friend and husband did not pass away — more than Chen and President Ma did,” said Liu, who was in tears. “Why do you have to resort to such an inhumane tactic to win an election?”
At a separate setting yesterday, Chen said he was quoted out of context in the news clip broadcast by SET-TV.
Chen accused the cable TV network of making up the story to mislead Lin’s family, adding that a number of political commentators had accused him of being “inhumane.”
He said he would seek legal action to defend his reputation. He added that he would fly to Hualien today to pay tribute to Lin.
Additional reporting by Tseng-Te-feng