Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)?
Ko and Huang have been appealing to that jaded trope, “the green terror,” a reference to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), comparing it to the White Terror of the pre-democracy KMT regime.
Beyond their bluster, a strange phenomenon has been happening in the past few months. Like a Martin Scorcese movie or a pivotal scene in the Godfather politicians have been brought down by prosecutors apparently energized by a new impetus that seems to coincide with President William Lai (賴清德) taking the reins of government. What is behind this activity?
Before anyone points the finger at Lai or the DPP, and suggest that there has been some pernicious political tomfoolery going on, look at who has fallen to the prosecutors’ swords.
On July 5, former Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), a major DPP figure, was summoned by prosecutors regarding an alleged corruption case during his tenure as Taoyuan mayor. He was held incommunicado until being released on Aug. 28 on bail of NT$28 million (US$872,138), the highest bail amount given to any political figure over the past few years. Cheng is also under investigation in a separate case after NT$6.78 million in cash was found in his Taipei residence by prosecutors on July 29.
On July 17, prosecutors indicted Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the KMT on charges of profiting from bribes in connection with a real-estate project.
On the same day, Taipei prosecutors indicted relatives of KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) in a money laundering case.
On July 26, the Taipei District Court found the TPP’s only elected official, suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), guilty of embezzling public funds and thereby contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Criminal Code. She was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison. The following month, on Aug. 21, Kao was sentenced to a further 10 months for falsely accusing a US academic of defamation.
On Aug. 20, investigators searched the offices of DPP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) in Taipei and Tainan.
If Ko, Huang and the TPP are so convinced that Lai and the DPP are persecuting them in a political “witch hunt,” they might want to consider the breadth of the prosecutions in terms of political parties, and the timing.
Cheng was a hugely important figure in the DPP: He served as Taoyuan mayor and vice premier before taking on the position of SEF chairman in Lai’s administration, and had been a trusted colleague of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). His fall from grace is a significant blow to the DPP.
While Ko and Kao being removed from the picture would undoubtedly benefit the DPP, if dirt could have been dug up to bring them down, the campaigns for the 2022 local elections and this year’s presidential elections might have been more effective times to do so.
Time will tell how many more heads will roll. However, Ko and Huang should desist from stoking social tensions with spurious talk of a “green terror” and from sowing doubt in the independence of the judiciary.
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