Lawyers yesterday said that there is nothing illegal in accepting former chairman of the Tuntex Group Chen Yu-hao's (陳由豪) political donations.
Last week, Chen faxed three open letters to the president and the offices of opposition lawmakers, saying that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had accepted donations by him in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election and the 1998 Taipei City mayoral election.
Chen Yu-hao's faxes sparked heated arguments. The blue camp took advantage of his statements and accused Chen Shui-bian of practicing "black gold politics."
"If what Chen Yu-hao said is true, then it is a sign that Chen Shui-bian is a clean politician because Chen Yu-hao's money was merely used as campaign donations," said Hsu Wen-bin (許文彬), a well-known lawyer.
"If Chen Shui-bian took Chen Yu-hao's money and did what he [Chen Yu-hao] was asking him [Chen Shui-bian] to do, it would have been bribery and black gold politics. This is different."
Hsu said that there is no law to regulate campaign donations in Taiwan so there is nothing wrong with political parties accepting donations. However, there is a fine line between pure campaign donations and bribery.
In Chen Yu-hao's case, Hsu said that Chen Yu-hao still believes "money talks" and tried to take advantage of his previous campaign donations to get himself out of legal trouble.
"The rule of `money talks' only applied to the martial law era. Justice today is independent from politics," Hsu said.
Chen Yu-hao thought that Chen Shui-bian should have done something for him since he donated a lot of money. However, even though Chen Shui-bian is the president, he still needed to heed a prosecutor's summons, like he did on Jan. 15. I think Chen Yu-hao forgot about that, Hsu said.
In addition, Hsu also believed that the pan-blue camp will not be able to help Chen Yu-hao, either, if Lien Chan (
"Even if they win, to avoid potential accusations of black gold politics, I don't think Lien and Soong will help him, either," Hsu said.
Another lawyer, Lee Ming-yu (
But Lee said that in addition to Chen Yu-hao's statement, the DPP's reactions and responses made him laugh.
"These people were asking Chen Yu-hao to `come back to Taiwan and explain in detail.' This is the funniest part, I think," Lee said.
Lee said that it is more important to figure out whether Chen Yu-hao's statement is true or false instead of "asking him to come back to explain the details."
"The truth will always be the truth, no matter where it is. The DPP politicians' anxiety is not helping matters at all," Lee said. "It is impossible for a fugitive to turn himself in unless he really wants to do so. It is more important to figure out whether Chen Yu-hao's three faxed letters are really his own work or whether they were made up by a third party. Chen Yu-hao never came forward and admitted that he wrote these letters."
"His faxes are not challenging justice. But his leaving Taiwan really damaged justice. It was not the behavior of a man with a sense of responsibility," he said.
It is totally fine to accept campaign donations, Lee said.
"However, if the donor is asking for something from the politicians, and, in return, the donor really benefits from the deal, it would be bribery," Lee said.
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