Taiwan's climate is not cold enough to warrant the use of radiators, so the 319 investigation committee lacks the cheap investigatory resources -- tying someone to an overheated radiator until they tell you what you want to hear -- of less torrid climes. Doubtless the pan-blues who dominate the committee will be thrown back on the means they used in the "good old days, when people had hope," as they call it, better known to others as the days of the White Terror. The old hands from the Taiwan Garrison Command haven't forgotten how to wire up someone's genitals to a hand generator, surely? God forbid that the old and valued skills of extracting confessions under duress should have withered in this democratic age.
Why do we paint the investigation commission as resembling the Spanish Inquisition? Because it has armed itself with pretty much the same set of powers and, far more importantly, shown about the same delicacy regarding human and constitutional rights -- ie, none at all. Let us be honest and admit that the issue has been mishandled from the start. There is talk of the new committee being unconstitutional. But the simple fact is that any committee at all would probably be so. The Constitution explicitly says that the Judicial Yuan has charge of civil, criminal and administrative cases. So any committee which impinged on these powers would either be constitutionally dubious or toothless. But given that the investigation of the election-eve shooting seemed to be going nowhere, President Chen Shui-bian (
What was needed was a constitutional amendment to allow criminal investigations, in restricted and exceptional circumstances, by other organs -- some sort of independent counsel's office, for example. This would have required an intelligent appreciation of what was needed, cooperation in the legislature toward passing the measure, and time, none of which the pan-blues were interested in granting.
What we actually got was the pan-blues passing their own bill, which aimed not to find out the truth but to provide them with a political tool to embarrass and harass the government and the pan-greens as much as possible without having to take any responsibility for the consequences. They can accuse whomever of whatever and leave it to seconded prosecutors to press the charges, however vacuous and ill-prepared they might be.
We could talk about the damage to the principle of separation of powers in setting up this committee. The independence of a judiciary from those staples of legislatures the world over, horse-trading, lobbying and the pork barrel, is a basic principle. What the new committee setup gives us is the majority faction in the legislature having the right to interfere in the affairs of the judiciary in any way it pleases, without any check on its power whatsoever. No wonder the committee has been called "a tool to rape justice."
This might violate the basic principles of democratic government, but it is not, however, the most outrageous thing about the new committee and its powers. Nor even is the fact that the committee is to be composed of party political hacks with no legal training. The real scandal, likely to do Taiwan's reputation as a liberal democracy serious damage, is that it dispenses with basic constitutional rights and protections. The statute creating the committee explicitly exempts it from the application of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This means that "due process" simply doesn't have to be followed, which in turn means safeguards against coercion do not apply. There is apparently nothing like a good beating with a rubber hose at the behest of a legislative appointee to find out who shot the president.
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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