President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appears to be clueless about the nomination process for the Council of Grand Justices, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday, adding that a national leader should not use ignorance as an excuse for mistakes.
Lee said he did not know whether Ma had been made aware of a controversial ruling by Supreme Court Judge Shao Yen-ling (邵燕玲) in a sexual assault case during the nomination process.
“However, a leader cannot use ignorance as an excuse,” he said. “A story I like to tell about World War II is that of a senior US -submarine captain who tells a young recruit that while he is young, he cannot use his age as an excuse because the lives of his men depend on his decisions.”
“If he didn’t know the situation and gave one wrong order, his men would die,” he said.
Lee said it was important for a leader to keep abreast of the very latest developments or he or she can can easily forfeit the trust of the public.
“Nominating judges to the Council of Grand Justices is an important matter, but what we have seen is things changing at the last minute for a strange reason,” he said.
Ma named an alternative nominee to the Council of Grand Justices on Thursday after Shao declined his nomination following her controversial ruling on a sexual assault case involving an infant.
Her rejection came after a front-page story in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) the same day reporting that her decision in a sexual assault case concerning an infant had caused public outrage.
Shao caused a stir last year when she overruled a High Court verdict in a sexual assault case on the grounds that the court could not prove a three-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted against her will, because she had not -resisted “strongly enough.”
In a statement, Shao said she realized how her ruling had upset some people, although a Control Yuan investigation later concluded there was nothing wrong with her verdict. To avoid causing trouble, Shao said she would decline the president’s nomination.
Ma on Friday made a public apology for failing to consider public opinion in his nomination. He said Shao had not told him she was the chief judge in the controversial case and that he would not have nominated her if he had been aware of her involvement.
Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who led the screening task force, apologized to the public and to Ma, who said he had been given insufficient information.
Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) also publicly apologized for recommending Shao. He said he knew she was responsible for the controversial ruling, but still included her on the nomination list because he saw Shao as “qualified” and it was difficult to find a female nominee.
Lee yesterday said that nominations for the Council of Grand Justices were an important task, but that there are rules that have to be followed. Every president is circumspect during the selection process ensuring that nominations are not made public until the choices are finalized, he said.
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