Love him or hate him, it's hard to ignore Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (
But it was hard not to laugh at him on Saturday when Chiu accused the nation's prosecutors of being "tools of the government." Strange words indeed, coming from Chiu, as no one has benefited more from the prosecutors' willingness to investigate and follow up his nonstop allegations against the government than Chiu himself.
His allegations have been instrumental in getting former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Che-nan (
Chiu should consider himself fortunate that he lives in the Taiwan of the 21st century, as just 22 years ago such accusations could have seen him suffer the same fate as Henry Liu (
So how Chiu has the effrontery to accuse prosecutors of bending to the government's will is beyond belief. If that were the case then he would probably be residing in prison right now as a result of the criminal damage he caused when he incited a riot and led a sound truck to repeatedly ram the gates of the Kaohsiung Prosecutors' Office following the 2004 presidential election.
Prosecutors indicted Chiu more than two years ago for his part in the damage, which was captured on film. This, combined with the fact he was serving a suspended sentence for violating the Public Officials' Election and Recall Law (
But Chiu and his patrons at TVBS -- he admitted the relationship in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post -- take advantage of Taiwan's highly partisan political atmosphere to make slanderous allegations safe in the knowledge that little, if any, action will be taken against them. Any cry of political persecution brings back painful memories for too many people in Taiwan and ensures that legislators from both sides get away scot-free when making the most outrageous allegations.
It is all very well to hold endless press conferences exposing government corruption if one has the evidence to support the allegations, but one cannot cry foul when upon investigation these allegations are found to be untrue, or as was discovered in one of the cases uncovered by Chiu, based merely on his suspicion.
Chiu is an educated man, so even he must be aware that if he continues to make serious allegations against people based on his suspicions, sooner or later he is going to be held accountable for them.
Slander may not be as serious a crime in Taiwan as in other countries but all people, no matter who they are, should have to answer for their words. Otherwise, who will compensate the prosecutors for all their wasted time and energy? It is no wonder that they have finally gotten round to indicting him.
The problem with Chiu is that his modus operandi seems to be if you throw enough mud, then eventually some of it will stick. But in most cases it doesn't. And while his role in exposing corruption must be commended, Chiu also has to realize that the more groundless accusations he makes, the less people will take notice of him.
Hasn't he heard the tale of the boy who cried wolf?
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
Sitting in their homes typing on their keyboards and posting on Facebook things like, “Taiwan has already lost its democracy,” “The Democratic Progressive Party is a party of green communists,” or “President William Lai [賴清德] is a dictator,” then turning around and heading to the convenience store to buy a tea egg and an iced Americano, casually chatting in a Line group about which news broadcast was more biased this morning — are such people truly clear about the kind of society in which they are living? This is not meant to be sarcasm or criticism, but an exhausted honesty.
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
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