Thu, Sep 16, 1999 page8

• Editorial: Peng case still has its lessons

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  The suicide of taxi driver Chen Tsai-fu (程財福) would have gone unnoticed by this paper were it not for the delusional behavior of his last moments. Before Chen administered his own quietus he penned a note admitting to being the killer of DPP activist Peng Wan-ru (彭婉如), who disappeared after taking a taxi from a hotel in Kaohsiung on Nov. 30, 1996 and was found stabbed to death, after having first been raped, outside a deserted warehouse in Kaohsiung County three days later.

  What added to the anxiety the Peng Wan-ju case caused was that it came just days after the murder of Taoyuan county commissioner Liu Pang-you (劉邦友) and seven others at Liu's home on Nov. 21. The combined effect on the public consciousness of these two cases was amplified several fold by the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Pai Hsiao-yen (白曉燕), the 17-year old daughter of a popular entertainer in April 1997. There was never much of a mystery about who committed the Pai kidnapping. What was mysterious about that case was how the three killers managed to elude capture for months with vast police resources conducting one of the biggest manhunts Taiwan had ever seen.

  As for the Liu and Peng killings, since the police announced late yesterday that blood and fingerprint evidence showed that the hapless Chen was not Peng's killer, both cases remain unsolved.

  The Liu-Peng-Pai cases were interpreted by many as showing that society was becoming unacceptably violent and dangerous. Eventually massive demonstrations occurred demanding the ouster of Lien Chan(連戰) -- now of course the KMT's presidential candidate -- as premier -- the logic being that if society had gone to the dogs then he, as the person in charge, should take the responsibility. Lien eventually did step down, but as a result of a reshuffle in responsibilities in the KMT inner circle, not because of public pressure. The Liu-Peng-Pai cases were also marked, not only for the extraordinary zeal with which they were covered by the media, but for the extraordinary promises made by police in charge of the cases. Most notorious would be the then leader of the National Police Administration Yao Kao-chiao, who vowed on the day Peng's body was found to resign if her murderer was not quickly brought to justice. Yao eventually did resign, but only after the elusiveness of Pai's killers had made Taiwan's police a Clouseauesque international laughing stock. But Kaohsiung city police chief Wang Chun also vowed to resign if the Peng case wasn't cracked in matter of weeks. He never did and in fact was on the shortlist to take Yao's position. And then there was Taiwan Provincial Police Commissioner Wang Yi-fei (王一飛) who on April 27, 1997 said he would resign to take responsibility for the Liu-Peng-Pai slayings if those responsible were not brought to justice. Predictably, he also never kept his promise.

  Yesterday's brief resurrection of the Peng case served to remind us of the absurd gestures that Taiwan cops seem prepared to make to prove they are on top of high profile cases. The problem is that when they don't follow through on these promises, as they invariably don't, they compound the impression of bad police work by appearing to have a regrettable lack of personal integrity. And if the top cops can't be trusted, what can be said about the small fry? The problem these cases showed up two years ago was how unprofessional Taiwan's police were since the force, for 40 years under martial law an adjunct to the military, was versed almost entirely in crowd and traffic control. What worries us is that, as these cases are now almost forgotten, so is the need for change.
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