Kong Vows to Defend His Clean Reputation

Taipei, May 16, 2006 (CENS)--In a press conference yesterday (May 15) after disappearance for there days, Kong Jaw-sheng, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), repeated his willingness to leave his position, though falling short of tendering his resignation outright, and attributed his ouster to his policies which run counter to the deployment of some interest groups.

In the conference, described as the ''mental journey of a political alien'' in his press release, Kong compared his NT$500,000 bailout for implication in corruption to the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings in the 911 incident, which caught him off guard entirely.

''With widespread coverage of my ouster by the press, my exit from the position naturally complies with the expectation of many people. However, as a financial supervisor, I cannot sit idly by watching the happening of all these things,'' said Kong.

He expressed his apology for the controversies on whether he should stay on his position and his respect of the decision of the Executive Yuan to suspend his duty, since he is not a person who likes to cling to his position and has preparation to step down anytime from the beginning of his tenure. ''Had I not come to FSC, the cases of Taiwan Sugar would never have been raised,'' remarked Kong.

Afterwards, he expressed his standpoints from three aspects. First, FSC is an independent institution, in order to prevent political interference in financial supervision. Different from other government agencies, policies of FSC are made via collective discussion between FSC members, whose positions are protected by fixed tenure. As the FSC chairman, Kong believed one of his major missions is to uphold the system and consolidate the status of FSC as the financial supervisor. ''In order to assure the internationalization of Taiwan' s financial market, we must work together to ward off political interference in the operation of FSC,'' pointed out Kong.

Secondly, he reiterated the importance to keep the independence of financial supervision, as any of the policy making of FSC would affect the interests of numerous people. ''My current treatment derived, of course, from the policies of FSC, which have spoiled the deployment and violated the expectations of some interest groups,'' alleged Kong.

Thirdly, he vowed to defend his clean reputation as a professional. ''As a person who grew up in a village of Taitung county, I rose through the ranks to become a global partner of an international investment bank, a rare achievement not only among Taiwanese but also among Chinese worldwide. The key to my success is professional expertise and the highest ethic standards,'' noted Kong.

He vowed that during his tenure as the chairman of Taiwan Sugar, he never did anything which ran counter to the interests of the company.

''Money has never been a factor in my evaluation. Despite my high salaries at foreign banks, I came to serve a government job for pittance of pays. Some people charge me of profiting others with disproportionate amount of benefits. Is that logical?'' asked Kong.

''I don' t cling to the position. However, I joined the government with a clean reputation and hope to leave with a clean reputation, too,'' emphasized Kong. He hoped his successor, the premier, and the president to help him fulfill his wish.