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Letters: Stamp out inequality

Many people may think that Taiwan protects human rights. In fact, this is far from the truth.

Some people have even begun to blame the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for what appears to be a failure of his administration not only to rectify the crimes and misconduct of the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, but also to educate officials such as law-enforcement personnel, prosecutors and judges. After all, these officials are the most important elements in safeguarding law and order in a democratic society.

If there is no mid-term correction, we may have a disaster in the 2008 election. The peaceful elections that have been held in Taiwan since 1996 have been praised as an example of a modern exodus from slavery under an authoritarian regime.

We all wish Taiwan will eventually be as successful in this transformation as the Jewish people had been several thousand years before. The most important element of the Jewish exodus was the introduction of law and order in a new society.

One may argue that Taiwan had law and order under the authoritarian KMT regime, but the truth was that the KMT's laws were aimed at benefiting no more than a small, elite group of party members and those associated with them.

The unequal treatment of Taiwanese residents has been a plague that took root in 1945 when the KMT took over.

Although the KMT was voted out of office in 2000 and lost last year's election, and while there have been some improvements in terms of equality and freedom of expression, equality problems have not gone away.

One recent example of this is former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) being fined NT$10 million (US$300,000) for his comment about People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), while nobody was punished for the pan-blue camp's slander of Lee and his families.

The searches of people's homes in Taoyuan and the confiscation of computer disks by the police before the performance of a political skit is another example, which reminds us of the White Terror under the KMT regime.

The illegal confiscation of Taiwanese national flags from private citizens at sports events by the Taipei City Government is yet another.

It is not entirely clear why senior government officials did nothing to protect citizens' right to free expression.

If the Taipei city government can strip citizens of their right to freedom of expression and get away with it, pretty soon the KMT will do it elsewhere in Taiwan.

When the government of a democratic society fails to protect its citizens by enforcing equality, law and order for all, the society will become chaotic to a point where people will accept anything but democracy.

The people's cry is clear: They want to have special treatment for the KMT elite removed. This request does not require constitutional reform; it requires education of low and middle-ranking law-enforcement personnel, including prosecutors and judges, to cultivate a nonpartisan attitude, and most importantly, the will to enforce it.

Education of and control over law enforcers are not new ideas; they are rooted in ancient times, when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery. Within two months after his people left Egypt, Moses realized the importance of law and order if he was to lead them any farther.

He took the advice of his father-in-law to train administrators of every rank to assist him in his administration. He then concentrated on the "written" law (the Ten Commandments and other edicts).

Neither Lee nor Chen could be considered a Moses, but they can emulate his ways of leading a new people.

The education and enforcement that Taiwan needs also demands that high-ranking officials should set a good example.

In the cases of the computer hacker who broke into the Presidential Office network and the telephone threats that were made on the life of Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), both the president and premier, the nation's two highest-ranking officials, failed to allow the judicial process to take its course by making statements which may have inappropriately interfered with prosecutors' ability to enforce justice.

If the DPP administration has decided to spoil the wrongdoers, the party will soon have to face the consequences of losing the 2008 election. And that would be a tragedy for all Taiwanese. Conversely, if the DPP can eradicate unfair treatment favoring the elite, Chen will leave a powerful legacy.

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