Where’s the justice?
Recent court decisions about former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) and the state affairs fund case of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) are very confusing and hard for the general public to understand. Lee, a former Taipei City councilor before she became a KMT legislator, who was given a two-year prison sentence after she was convicted of concealing her dual US citizenship and fraudulently receiving a salary of up to NT$100 million (US$3.1 million) was given a non-guilty verdict on appeal.
Chen, on the other hand, had his guilty verdict in the Longtan, Nangang Exhibition Hall, the state affairs fund and other cases upheld by the court and must remain in prison. How are we to teach our children what justice is with these rulings, which are obviously destroying justice? Why was Chen found guilty while Lee was found innocent and President Ma Ying-jeou(馬英九) was not even indicted on similar charges?
Judicial decisions that seem to be targeted at specific people are not acceptable.
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recently said “I am Taiwanese,” Ma’s people said her statement was differentiating between ethnic groups.
However, the real differentiation between ethnic groups was to convict Chen and lock him up. How can this kind of standard convince Taiwanese?
Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his wife, Madame Chiang (Soong Mayling, 宋美齡) had their food, clothing and housing paid for by Taiwanese taxpayers, but they still implemented the martial law era, killed innocent people, and created the White Terror era in Taiwan. Why doesn’t the Judicial Yuan carry out justice and pursue investigations into their cases?
These judicial decisions shows us what is going on behind the scenes in Taiwan. No wonder Hsu Shui-teh (許水德), a former secretary-general of the KMT, said that the courts are run by the KMT. Even if the courts are not completely run by the KMT, the party can at least be considered a “substantial shareholder” in Taiwan’s judicial system. The KMT can control every judicial decision.
During the Chinese imperial days, all national power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor. Even a three-year-old child could become emperor during the Qing dynasty. Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) then called on China’s young people to overthrow the autocratic Qing dynasty in the hope of building a democratic country. Unfortunately, to this day, the KMT still follows the same imperial thinking and culture.
Today, Taiwan calls itself a democracy, but it still isn’t possible to reach fair judicial decisions. It is easy for a judge to serve as a tool for the ruling party and follow the principle that the courts should “only sentence members of the pan-green camp and not members of the pan-blue camp.”
I would like to ask Ma about his views on this issue. What can Tsai, the DPP’s presidential candidate, do about this issue?
In order to safeguard the people of Taiwan and give them a peaceful life with dignity and human rights, please promptly release former president Chen. This is the wish of a humble Taiwanese.
YANG LIU HSIU-HWA
Taipei
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