Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday said former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), is risking his father’s parole by “mediating” for the senior Chen to again engage in politics.
Chen Chih-chung on Wednesday said that he is to host a radio talk show — One Country on Each Side and Love Taiwan — starting on Monday, in which there is to be a section that features the former president, with the audience’s questions answered indirectly by Chen Shui-bian through his son.
Chen Chih-chung said that the show is to “acquire former president A-bian’s first-hand and exclusive responses and present them in the show and to the audience across the country.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“This, I think, is Chen Shui-bian’s re-engagement in politics,” Wu said. “That is, via the mediation of his son, the former president could participate in politics and discuss current affairs.”
The legislator said Chen Shui-bian’s supporters in the south say that the show is to have A-bian monitor Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) adherence to the “one country on each side” tenet.
Invited by Wu to the news conference, Ministry of Justice Agency of Corrections inspector Chan Li-wen (詹麗雯) said medical treatment must be Chen Shui-bian’s priority as a convict on medical parole.
“Activities unrelated to medical treatment must be reported and require the permission of Taichung Prison,” Chan said. “We have so far not yet received any documents [concerning Chen Shui-bian’s plan], and we, with no predisposition, will deal with the matter carefully.”
Wu said regulations governing medical parole clearly stipulate that those on parole cannot engage in activities “clearly unrelated” to medical treatment.
“I believe that Chen Chih-chung might be misleading his father into violating the rules,” Wu said.
If Chen Shui-bian again makes his influence felt in the political world, “can he go back to prison then?” Wu asked.
However, he added that he did not know whether Chen Shui-bian’s parole should be terminated.
Chen Chih-chung responded on Facebook.
“Wu called speaking for A-bian and rectifying the political persecution ‘engaging in politics,’” he wrote. “As expected, the political hatchet man has started the repression work; Taiwan has never been freed from injustice and unfairness. I can only ask the people to be our powerful backers.”
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