Justice minister criticizes Lien and Soong's actions

Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) yesterday complained that the pan-blue camp was trying to take advantage of the legislature to interfere with justice.

The minister was obviously upset about the pan-blue camp's constant criticisms over the past week as he attended a breakfast meeting with Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan.

"First of all, I would say that Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) is not qualified to be a presidential candidate because of his attempts to manipulate the Constitution," he said.

The minister said that to recount the ballots, everything had to be processed according to law.

However, he said, because of their political ambitions , Lien and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) had constantly tried a variety of possibilities to get judges and the Central Election Committee (CEC) to stage a recount, and they did not show any respect toward justice at all.

"These actions are against the Constitution. If a recount is requested, everybody should follow the law and let judges do their jobs," Chen said. "How can a person like him [Lien] become our president?"

The minister also complained that the pan-blue camp had been trying to take advantage of the legislature to interfere with the judicial system, referring to attempts by KMT and PFP lawmakers to establish a special task force to investigate the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19.

"All law enforcement officers and experts are now working on the case. Everybody wants to arrest the gunman as soon as possible," the minister said.

"It seems to be that their [the pan-blue camp] attitude shows that they do not trust our officers at all. This is absurd," he said.

He said the pan-blue camp was actually trying to start a revolution by questioning the shooting and staging demonstrations to back their demands for a recount.

Chen Ding-nan said Soong had constantly tried to humiliate the judiciary.

"Remember what he said when prosecutors decided not to indict him over the Chung Hsing Bills Finance scandal?" the minister said. "He said, `Thank you justice, for clearing my name.' Now he is complaining that justice is not fair."

"Lien and Soong do not respect the justice system at all," he said.

"How can they lead the public to learn how to do it [respect the system]? I don't think they can," he said.