Both the ruling party and the opposition have admitted that prosecutors at the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office played a decisive role in the recent country commissioner by-election. However, the confrontation between the DPP and the prosecutors' office did not abate after the election, but has intensified day by day. Such a conflict is detrimental to the image of the ruling party and the government.
The DPP is angry with the prosecutors' office about several things. Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih (
Cracking down on vote-buying is a job for prosecutors, but they should carry out their duties impartially. The Hualien prosecutor office's behavior has aroused suspicions that it was attempting to influence the election outcome.
The prosecutor office has indicted the man involved in the bicycle case. It also charged You's campaign team with vote-buying, citing You's offer to provide Aboriginal chiefs with NT$5,000 a month subsidy if he was elected. DPP's Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chin-yung (
The face-off between the DPP and Hualien prosecutors has damaged both the government and the ruling party and made senior officials look bad. Providing subsidies to Aboriginal chiefs is within the remit and discretion of the administration. It is outside the scope of judicial deliberation. Voters, not prosecutors or judges, decide whether or not a candidate's campaign promises are appropriate. The prosecutors have overstepped the line dividing judicial affairs and politics. No wonder Lee thinks the prosecutors were deliberately targeting the DPP.
However, as a lawyer himself, Lee should know that a citizen has the duty to show up in court when summoned. By publicly showing his contempt for judicial authorities, Lee has set a bad example, although he did relent and decide yesterday to go to Hualien for questioning. The proper way to fight injustice is to present your case at court, instead of unleashing criticism in the media. By putting up a fight outside the court, both the DPP and the judiciary would lose in the end.
Prosecutors are civil servants with a double role in both the executive and judicial branches. To safeguard judicial independence, prosecutors should be protected from outside interference in their investigations. However, judicial independence does not allows prosecutors to do whatever they want. Executive supervision and media monitoring of prosecutors are both necessary. The Hualien by-election has shown us the great impact that erratic prosecutors can have on elections. The Ministry of Justice must find ways to keep politics out of prosecutions while also stopping prosecutors from messing with politics.
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