President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said it was too early to tell whether he would grant any special pardons in 2011, the centenary of the founding of the Republic of China.
Ma said if special pardons were to be announced prematurely, it would not help public order and would be likely to cause “moral peril.”
He said although former presidents have granted pardons on special occasions, whether this was a good policy deserved further evaluation.
Ma made the remarks during an interview with the state-owned Central News Agency yesterday.
The president did not say whether he would pardon former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) if Chen were convicted.
Ma has said on various occasions that it was inappropriate to discuss the issue because his predecessor has not been convicted of any crime.
Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), were indicted in December on charges of embezzlement from the president’s “state affairs” fund. They are also accused of accepting bribes, money laundering and corruption.
CHAIRMANSHIP
On his bid for the KMT chairmanship, Ma said his decision to run was to “respond to the people’s expectations and the challenges of governing the country.”
The days when one party dictated government policy are gone, he said, and what he hoped to see was the party complement the government, a goal he described as feasible.
The executive and legislative branches of the government sometimes made mistakes, but if he could double as party chairman, Ma said, the two branches could communicate better with each other, which would reduce the possibility for mistakes.
Regarding this year’s bid to regain UN membership, Ma said the administration would not make a final decision on how to proceed until August, adding that participation in international organizations was more sensitive than maintaining bilateral ties with another country.
While the government had to focus its efforts on the World Health Assembly after attending as an observer this year, the time was not ripe to discuss the long-term plan of participating in other UN agencies, he said.
Meanwhile, Ma said his decision to continue pursuing his lawsuit against Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁) was for the sake of public justice and not a matter of personal interest.
Hou was one of the prosecutors who had investigated Ma’s handling of his special allowance funds when he was Taipei mayor, minister of justice, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council and other posts.
SPECIAL ALLOWANCE
Ma sued Hou for forgery in January last year, alleging that Hou had inaccurately documented his questioning of a Taipei City Government treasurer about Ma’s use of his mayoral special allowance.
A lawyer representing Ma filed an appeal at the Taipei District Court in March after prosecutors decided not to indict Hou.
The president yesterday vowed to see the court proceedings through to the end, no matter what the final result would be.
Ma said he would adopt a two-pronged approach of proceeding with the legal procedure while continuing to push for judicial reform.
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