Nine years ago, the arrest of gambling tycoon Chou Jen-sen (
However, we cannot but wonder if the police in Taiwan have learned the lessons they were given the hard way.
On Monday, Chou was released after staying behind bars for only 173 days. The number of days he served in jail was used to offset NT$860 million that was unpaid out of a fine of NT$900 million. For every day Chou spent in prison, he managed to work off NT$5 million of his fine. Clearly, the implementation of laws in Taiwan can be flexible and wealthy people who know how to wield their legal clout can find loopholes in the law. Although the government has attempted to amend the law and has prolonged jail terms in cases related to white collar crime and corruption in the wake of the Chou case, it is too late to make any changes to this particular case.
If Taiwan's legal system wants to treat this case seriously and quickly correct the injustice resulting from the inappropriate sentence, the judges handling the case could speed up Chou's bribery trial and use it to change the public's negative view of the legal system's efficiency. Although Chou has already served his sentence for the gambling conviction, his bribery conviction has remained under appeal from 1999 until now, despite a second review in 2002. If it is not concluded this year, the three-year review process means that the next review will have to wait until 2008. Small wonder that criminals seem to fear nothing, since justice in Taiwan is always so late in arriving.
The worry now is that if Chou's case is not pursued while the iron is hot, the enormous funds that he has hidden and his network of contacts inside the judicial system may mean that the streets of Taiwan's big cities will become as full of gambling arcades as in the past. Although Chou and his people have kept a low profile for a while, they are sure to come out of the woodwork, tempted by the huge profits to be made from electronic gambling. And once again he will pay off legislators, city councilors, community police, judges, journalists and customs officers, and controlling things from behind the scenes, he will rebuild his gambling kingdom.
Still, there are rumors that some legislators from Taichung and Taoyuan counties are planning to revive the "electronic gaming" act in the next session of the legislature. If this act, which is backed by professional gamblers, is passed into law, along with innumerable loopholes in relation to enforceability, then our streets will again become a playground in which gambling businesses can legally tempt our youth. This will be a disaster for the next generation of Taiwanese.
The Chou case led to a host of dismissals in the police force. At least two police officers committed suicide as a result, and two senior police officers are still on the lam. Of the numerous officers who were the subject of investigation and were suspended from the force, many now have families and careers that are in tatters. This tragedy is one that we should learn from, and we should never allow people such as Chou to return to a prominent position in society.
We must be alert to the danger presented by people such as Chou, for they do not balk at putting down huge sums of money in bribes. With corrupt legislators in their pocket, they can overpower Taiwan's legal establishment and send another scandal tearing through Taiwan's police force.
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