There is a saying that goes: “You only know where to go if you know where you come from.” Apparently, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, does not have a clue where he comes from.
In the first of three platform presentations for presidential candidates, Han said: “President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is filled with corrupt government officials and it even shut down the Special Investigation Division (SID),” adding that he would reinstate the division if elected.
As an undergraduate in political science and a future lawyer, I was astounded when I heard of Han’s intent to reopen the notorious division. I would like to refresh Han and his supporters’ memories:
Taiwan has been a universally respected and loved democracy that has created a society that follows the rule of law. One of the key elements of democracy is the principle of separation of powers. In a constitutional democracy, one constitutional power must respect the others to prevent abuses of power.
For example, the executive branch should respect the legislative branch. In 2013, the “September strife” between then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) showed why the SID should be dissolved.
The reason is simple: Then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) instructed the SID to wiretap the legislature’s switchboard, including a phone conversation between Wang and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), for a month without a strong legal basis or compelling reasons.
Before he closed the case, Huang demanded to report the situation to Ma without a specific legal mandate. Ma, along with then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), accepted Huang’s briefing.
At a news conference at SID headquarters a few days later, Huang accused Wang of accepting judicial lobbying by Ker.
Later on, as KMT chairman, Ma demanded Wang’s resignation and called a news conference at KMT headquarters, saying “I think Speaker Wang is no longer fit to be speaker of the Legislative Yuan. If the KMT fails to punish Wang by at least canceling his party membership and his status as a legislator-at-large and expel him from the Legislative Yuan, we in effect choose to tacitly accept that the judiciary’s dignity continues to be trampled on.”
There are three points to note:
First, Ma, as head of the executive branch, should have respected Wang, the head of the legislative branch. By demanding the speaker’s resignation, Ma violated the principle of separation of powers. As a Harvard Law School graduate, he should be ashamed of himself.
Second, and more intriguingly, Ma’s ace in the hole was to force Wang’s resignation by revoking his status as a legislator-at-large. The Legislative Yuan is a national constitutional institution, while the KMT is a civil association. On what grounds could a KMT chairman ask for the speaker’s resignation? Ma indeed lacked common sense.
Last and not least, no matter what happens, the president should not have accepted to be briefed by the prosecutor-general before a case was closed. It is called respect for the principle of non-disclosure of an investigation. Yet Ma was not only briefed twice by Huang, he also informed the premier of the situation.
The two executive heads worked in conjunction with the head of judicial prosecutors to cut off the legislative head. It brought shame to rule of law in Taiwan.
The SID, notoriously referred to as another Dong Chang, a Ming Dynasty secret police and spy agency, was the primary culprit behind this miserable lesson for our constitutional democracy.
Now, Han, as the KMT’s presidential nominee, is planning to reinstate the SID. As former US president Abraham Lincoln once said: “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
It is inconceivable to imagine Han as president.
Han has revealed his character and that he does not know a thing about basic concepts of law. It is evident that he is not fit to be president and to lead Taiwan for the next four years. I would like to respectfully tell Mayor Han: He comes from a country that lives under the rule of law, not rule by law.
Huang Yu-zhe is an undergraduate in Soochow University’s Department of Political Science and has been accepted to National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies.
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Since the end of the Cold War, the US-China espionage battle has arguably become the largest on Earth. Spying on China is vital for the US, as China’s growing military and technological capabilities pose direct challenges to its interests, especially in defending Taiwan and maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific. Intelligence gathering helps the US counter Chinese aggression, stay ahead of threats and safeguard not only its own security, but also the stability of global trade routes. Unchecked Chinese expansion could destabilize the region and have far-reaching global consequences. In recent years, spying on China has become increasingly difficult for the US
RSS