Corporate support sought for candidates
A TOP industrialist and leader in the ruling Kuomintang yesterday called on Taiwan executives to unite behind pro-business candidates in year-end legislative elections regardless of party affiliation.
Kao Ching-yuan, chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) and a member of the Kuomintang's central standing committee, said he would organise a support committee of top industrialists to elect 'their own legislators'.
Mr Kao issued the call at a breakfast forum during which he protested at the apparent decision by the ruling party to maintain the present 20:80 split of labour insurance premium payments between employees and employers in revisions to the labour insurance act. They will soon be voted on by the Legislative Yuan.
The cabinet had earlier proposed revising the premium split to 40:60, but retreated in the face of protests by both pro-Kuomintang and independent labour unions and by Kuomintang legislators concerned with the possible effect of a rise on year-end elections.
Mr Kao said the decision 'has already weakened the Government's authority'. The CNFI chairman said the split 'could not be borne' and called on business leaders to 'make all efforts to resist' it.
He also tried to lobby legislators from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the neo-conservative New Party for a more pro-business split.
'If the DPP and New Party support the business community, businessmen will certainly support them,' he said.
The island's new national health insurance programme, which should be introduced in April, features either a 40:60 or 30:70 premium split. The Legislative Yuan will vote on bills setting the premiums at its next session in February.
Lin Chung-cheng, special assistant to the DPP chairman, said the 20:80 split would not be a major burden to firms in the long term 'as the costs would probably be passed indirectly to consumers and wage-earners'.
DPP legislator Shen Fu-hsiung said Mr Kao's call 'would hurt the Kuomintang' in the Legislative Yuan elections slated for December. Most voters were employees who already faced a sharply rising insurance burden.
'The combination of national health insurance plus labour insurance premiums are going to push up the burden on employees by four to seven times, depending on how big their families are,' Mr Shen noted.
