The legislature's grilling of nominees for the Council of Grand Justice, which focused heavily on issues related to national identity, verged on turning what should have been a review of qualifications into a political witch hunt, political analysts said.
The candidates for president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan and half of the eight grand justice nominees took questions from lawmakers last week, while the other half will meet with lawmakers tomorrow followed by a confirmation vote on Thursday.
It was not a big surprise that most lawmakers questioned the nominees about their views on disputes stemming from the government's policy of applying for UN membership under the name "Taiwan" instead of the "Republic of China" (ROC).
Pan-blue camp legislators raised questions about whether the UN bid involves a name change, the question "What the hell is the ROC?" asked by President Chen-Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the statement that the "ROC no long exists" by Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝).
The pan-blue camp said the nominees' answers to the questions reflected whether they would be "guardians of the ROC Constitution," while the pan-green camp urged the nominees not to interpret the Constitution in a rigid way.
The scene is expected to be repeated in tomorrow's question-and-answer session as three of the four nominees yet to receive a hearing are known for their pro-independence stance and have been singled out by the pan-blues.
"It was really a pity that most lawmakers cared more about politics than issues related to judicial reforms," said Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), the executive-director of the Judicial Reform Foundation, after observing the hearings for candidates for the Judicial Yuan's president and vice president.
Jiang Huang-zhi (姜皇池), an associate professor at the College of Law at National Taiwan University, said that legislators should not ask about nominees' political ideology.
"Personal convictions in politics shouldn't be a factor in the confirmation hearings because different political beliefs should be allowed in a democracy," he said.
The Council of Grand Justices might not be able to ensure tolerance of political dissent and varied opinions if legislators based their confirmation vote on grand justice nominees' political ideology, Jiang said.
Instead of asking nominees to reveal their political ideology, lawmakers should rather make sure they will follow the Constitution, not their personal convictions, when deciding cases, said Chen Chi-hua (陳志華), a professor of politics at National Taipei University.
The Council of Grand Justices, the main body of the nation's highest judicial organ, is vested by the Constitution with the exclusive power of judicial review and of interpreting the Constitution as well as unifying interpretations of laws and ordinances.
The design of the Constitution means that the primary function of the council is to act as the ultimate mechanism that Taiwanese can resort to when they seek redress for infringements of their basic human rights, Chen Chi-hua said.
"A candidate who does not have a specific political ideology may still have a record of harming human rights in his judicial career. It's a shame that lawmakers fail to thoroughly look into nominees' stances on human rights issues during the confirmation process," he said.
Of the eight grand justice nominees, President of Fuchien High Court Kinmen Branch Court Tsai Ching-you (蔡清遊) was classified as "unqualified" by civil rights activists for his previous ruling on the controversial case of the "Hsichih trio."
At a press conference on Sept. 17 to reveal the results of evaluations of nominees conducted by civil groups, Taiwan Association of Human Rights chairman Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡) said Tsai is a judge lacking respect for the principle of the presumption of innocence.
The Hsichih trio was accused of murdering a husband and wife.
The three were convicted on charges of murder, robbery and rape and sentenced to death in 1991.
For more than 16 years, debate has raged about the case as the three suspects claim to have been tortured and forced to make false confessions.
Other than the disputed confessions, no direct evidence has been found to link the trio to the murders.
After the three had exhausted all legal appeals, former state public prosecutor-general Chen Han (
"When the first extraordinary appeal was reviewed, Tsai was the designated judge of a full bench and he overruled the appeal. This not only shows his disrespect for the principle of non-criminal inference, but also his disdain for the right to life," Liu said.
The long-running case of the Hsichih trio, however, was nearly an afterthought at the legislature's confirmation review until Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yang Feng-wan (
Shih Cheng-feng (
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