The judicial system is the last line of defense for justice. The scales on the Ministry of Justice’s emblem symbolize fairness and impartiality in the execution of the law.
However, judicial officials have been accused of bias in investigations, indictments and rulings.
A National Chung Cheng University Crime Research Center poll released on Aug. 17 shows that Taiwanese doubt the impartiality of the judicial system. It found that 83.2 percent of respondents do not believe that judges handle cases objectively. While the poll suggests that the public’s trust in prosecutors has risen to a seven-year high of more than 30 percent, the figure nonetheless indicates that most Taiwanese still have no faith in the impartiality of the nation’s investigation apparatus.
Many find reasons to doubt the impartiality of the judiciary as case after case proves that the system is not necessarily unprejudiced when it comes to cases involving politicians.
Judicial officials were swift in their 2011 investigation into allegations of irregularities involving then-Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in connection with the Yu Chang Biologics Inc (中裕新藥) case. The case was aggressively pursued and had a crucial role in the outcome of the presidential election, from which former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) emerged victorious.
In contrast, investigations into Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) over questionable loans given to the Chinese Nationalist Party-run (KMT) Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and suspected irregularities stemming from its failure to observe US money laundering laws — which led to a US$180 million fine from the New York State Department of Financial Services — seem to be progressing at a snail’s pace.
A case involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is another example. Minutes after he stepped out of the Presidential Office Building upon the expiration of his second term in office on May 20, 2008, he was summoned to face corruption and fraud charges in connection with his “state affairs fund.”
After serving six years of a 20-year sentence for graft convictions, Chen was released on medical parole on Jan. 5 last year. However, Chen’s trial, and the investigation and prosecution of his cases, have been criticized for procedural flaws, such as an order in December 2008 to replace Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) with Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓).
Ma is a different story.
He has been implicated in more than 20 cases, including allegedly helping Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group (遠雄集團) secure profits by agreeing to waive royalty fees for land use during his tenure as Taipei mayor; his alleged role in a classified information leak in 2013, which involved the wiretapping of then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) telephone; and corruption allegations over unexplained personal wealth during his time as president.
However, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has not opened investigations into these cases, causing suspicion among the public that the judiciary is dawdling in cases involving pan-blue politicians.
An investigation should not be rushed, but the slow pace at which officials probe the Mega Bank case and those involving Ma is why most people do not trust the judicial system.
Tsai has pledged to push and implement judicial reform; hopefully it will not be an empty promise.
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To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
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