Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) sparked a controversy for allegedly pressuring a police officer not to give her a parking ticket.
On Tuesday last week, she and her husband parked their vehicle in a no parking zone in a lane along Guangfu S Road in the capital before going into a restaurant. The officer’s body cam footage, which was later released, showed Hsu’s husband emerging from the restaurant and spotting the officer checking their vehicle’s license plate. The police officer told him that he would be receiving a parking ticket.
Hsu joined the men, pulled down her mask and identified herself, informing the police officer that the car belonged to her.
“I thought if the driver was around, you just gave a verbal warning? This is what other police officers told me,” Hsu said. “So do you go directly to handing out parking tickets now?”
Telling the officer several times to go ahead and write up the ticket, Hsu said: “We can settle this later.”
Her husband again urged the officer to give them the ticket, saying that it would put them in a “difficult situation” not to receive one, while the officer told them that giving them the ticket would put him in “an even more difficult” situation. The officer finally let them go without issuing the ticket.
Later, someone posted the incident on the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) online bulletin board, accusing Hsu of abusing her power, while the police officer was given two reprimands for “malfeasance.”
The incident fueled furious debate among politicians and the public, where deep-blue KMT members, such as Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), left messages of support for Hsu, while members of the public lambasted her for using her position to avoid being fined.
Hsu has so far not offered a formal apology for the incident, but said in a statement: “This has severely damaged my reputation and the situation has been extremely stressful. That’s why I intend to sue.”
That an incident involving a NT$900 ticket could turn into such a controversy reveals several issues:
First, the incident could give people the impression that politicians enjoy certain privileges. This would be a huge setback for politicians, who have been trying to polish their image over the past few years. They would like the public to believe that undue influence has long been abolished, that all are equal under the law, but Hsu has shown that corruption has yet to be completely uprooted.
Second, Internet users have interpreted Hsu’s “we can settle this later” to mean that she intended to talk to the officer’s supervisor, which purportedly was the reason he was reprimanded. After all, city councilors review police department budgets. The officer’s punishment is likely to lower the morale of other officers carrying out their duties.
Third, Hsu’s response following the incident has only reinforced the KMT’s negative image. As a rising star in the party, Hsu had a fresh image, but the support from deep-blue members only attracted deep-blue voters, while her ineffective apology and apparent lack of contrition have alienated everyone else.
KMT leaders — from KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) to Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) — have remained silent. The incident has shown that Taiwanese prefer fairness and justice over corruption and abuses of power.
Even for something as trivial as a parking infraction, the wiser approach would have been to just accept the ticket and go.
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