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Reaction is swift and sharply split along party lines

Democratic Progressive Party members of the Kaohsiung City Council protest against former president Chen Shui-bian being placed in custody yesterday while calling for President Ma Ying-jeou’s resignation. PHOTO: KUO FANG-CHI, TAIPEI TIMES

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention angered Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday, with senior party members and officials calling the arrest “politically motivated.”

Some 20 DPP lawmakers denounced the detention at a news conference yesterday morning, calling it part of a government plot to “thoroughly crush the opposition under the guise of democracy and justice.’’

“We have not seen any action into the investigation of the 26 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government officials’ use of their special allowance,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said. “Apparently prosecutors only focused on Chen and other DPP officials’ case, but skipped cases that involved pan-blue officials. Can we term this the death of the judiciary?”

The KMT government wants to beat down pro-localization morale in the guise of democracy and justice, Ker said.

Sarcastically saying that it was “a coincidence” that Chen was detained following last week’s visit to Taiwan by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and before former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) attends the APEC leaders forum later this week, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said she believed the detention was carried out to appease China and dampen the morale of the DPP and the pro-Taiwan movement.

The Kaohsiung City Council’s DPP caucus members handcuffed themselves during a council session to show their dissatisfaction with the court’s decision to detain the former president, displaying signs that read “Death of Justice” and “Political Persecution.”

At a press conference held after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei yesterday afternoon, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the detention was “shoddily administered and an abuse of power.’’

“We hope authorities can show more respect for the human rights of [a former leader] and not incite people to cause unnecessary division,” Tsai said.

The methods used in investigating Chen’s case had “made many people feel sad, angry and humiliated,” said Tsai, asking the judiciary to abide by the law and respect Chen’s rights.

“The part that was hardest to take was the cuffing of a former president before the court had ordered he be detained,” Tsai said. “[The cuffing] was not just a show of distrust of Chen’s integrity, but also a humiliation of his supporters.”

While urging supporters to stay calm, Tsai said prosecutors had violated “the gag order” during Chen’s investigation by revealing information to selected media organizations.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) had even predicted that Chen would be indicted, and this meant that Chen had been found guilty by the media and the KMT government before his trial even began, Tsai said.

“The judiciary should not become a political tool and Ma should take full responsibility for the injustice Chen faces,” Tsai said.

Since prosecutors did not offer any convincing reasons for why Chen should be detained, Tsai said, her party believed the detention of Chen was aimed at forcing Chen into owning up to the charges, “which was against the principles of human rights and the rule of law.”

At KMT headquarters, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) urged members not to find pleasure in Chen’s detention, and to allow the judicial system to handle the case without political interference.

“It’s a misfortune for our country to have a former president taken into custody,” Wu said.

KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) urged Chen to face justice with courage and called on the public to respect the court’s decision.

Unlike the glee expressed at news of Chen’s detention by several KMT lawmakers on Tuesday, many KMT legislators kept a low profile yesterday.

KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) urged pan-blue supporters to refrain from provoking their pan-green counterparts. He also urged the DPP to stop describing the case as political persecution.

Wu asked the DPP not to block his proposed amendment to the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例) that would cancel all preferential treatment for a retired national leader should he or she be found guilty in the first trial, although the privileges would be reinstated if the defendant were cleared of all charges in a third trial.

KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) defended the judiciary’s independence and urged the DPP not to incite conflict between different ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, Ma said he respected the court ruling, but urged Chen to focus on winning his legal case rather than wasting his energy claiming political persecution.

Ma said he was not happy about Chen’s detention, but would use it as a reminder for himself so he did not make similar mistakes.

He made the remarks in a live interview with a radio station yesterday morning.

Dismissing Chen’s allegation that he had ordered the detention, Ma said he was not surprised Chen had made the accusation.

Ma said he had never intervened in any legal case since he was minister of justice, nor had he meddled in the investigation of Chen.

His information about the case came from newspapers, Ma said.

He said he could empathize with Chen and other DPP local chiefs detained on graft charges.

“But I never said my case was judicial and political persecution,” said Ma, who was acquitted of corruption charges. “What I did instead was to calm myself down and concentrate on the case.”

Ma said a responsible politician would not accuse the judiciary of political persecution because it would only discredit the judicial system and make the public lose trust in the institution if the accuser could not produce concrete evidence to prove the claim.

He said he also waited until the High Court cleared his name to sue the prosecutors investigating his case for forging interview documents, Ma said, adding that politicians must be careful with their words and actions because they serve as role models for society.

Ma urged Chen and other detained DPP politicians to hire good lawyers to help them clear their names in court and to refrain from treating the judiciary as an enemy or political persecutor because a democratic country is not a democracy if the judiciary is not fair and just.

“It is important that the people trust the judicial system,” Ma said. “It is true that the judiciary requires reform, but some people’s state of mind also needs an overhaul.”

Ma said he had not received any information of political maneuvering in the judiciary. When he was embroiled in corruption allegations, he said he did his job responding to subpoenas and concentrated on winning the case because it was the most important and only thing he should do.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH AND AP
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