Justice denied
It is not surprising that 83 percent of Taiwanese do not believe judges handle cases objectively (Editorial, Oct. 18, page 8).
Taiwanese have said “courts are opened by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)” for decades, implying that the KMT controls the courts. They also say “the green is punished, but the blue is not,” “the poor is sentenced to death and the rich is acquitted,” and “the law detours when it meets [former president] Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).”
Recently, people added “courts are closed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)” — with good reason.
The number of civil and criminal cases against Ma was reduced dramatically from more than 100 to just 24 before Ma stepped down on May 20.
Some of these pending cases are years old, but Ma is now treated by the courts as if he were still the president. Ma can “gallop” here and there, and has even applied for permission to go to Malaysia and the US.
In contrast, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was banned from leaving Taiwan within an hour of handing over power to Ma, and was then jailed.
Former minister of transportation Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), a DPP member, was also sentenced to eight years, despite no evidence of bribery ever being found.
Chen and Kuo should be released.
The Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) was passed, but the KMT is resisting its implementation by staging protests, breaking windows and pouring human waste all over the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee’s office.
KMT assets are hidden everywhere in many forms. Without being punished, the KMT should at least willingly return ill-gotten assets to the government and Taiwanese.
The scandals involving government-run Mega International Commercial Bank and XPEC Entertainment occurred during the Ma administration. Taxpayers and stockholders have incurred huge losses, and finance and stock markets have been be adversely affected.
The DPP administration has been criticized for using KMT judges to investigate KMT “financial gang” officials.
Voters are beginning to wonder what the power transfer was for.
The KMT, mainly through its several propaganda deputy commissioners, challenges the DPP administration to “thoroughly investigate” all cases as if it had firewalls against the investigations.
The DPP administration can skip this month’s national conference on legal reform. Immediate action is needed to eliminate all notorious legal injustices. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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