Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) spokespersons yesterday urged voters unhappy with the acquittal of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on money laundering and corruption charges to vent their displeasure on Nov. 27, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of attempting to “hijack” the judiciary.
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世) urged the DPP’s mayoral candidates in the special municipality elections to explain their position on Friday’s court ruling, adding: “Please tell the electorate whether you think people who take bribes should be acquitted.”
Lin called on the DPP caucus to help pass the Judges’ Act in the legislature. The committee review of the bill has been brought forward from next week to this week.
Lin also urged voters to go to the polls, saying the message they send will signal their expectations of the judiciary.
While KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) described Judge Chou Chan-chun’s (周占春) verdict as “gutsy,” she said it represented “covert encouragement” for public servants to commit graft.
The Taipei District Court said it found no evidence that Chen took NT$600 million (US$20 million) in exchange for promises not to block separate mergers initiated by Cathay Financial Holdings (國泰金控) and Yuanta Financial Holdings (元大金控).
“As long as you are skillful, you don’t have to take the money, but your wife and relatives can accept it on your behalf because they don’t have any direct connection with your job,” Hung said. “It’s unbelievable to see such a ruling.”
Some people have been so disappointed that they have decided not to vote, Hung said.
“If you stay home, the government that made you so angry will return to power,” she said. “The real reason why the DPP wants to win all five mayoral seats is that they want to protect Chen’s judicial rights. If the DPP wins the elections, corruption will be rampant, but not a single corrupt public servant will be held responsible. Is this what you really want?”
KMT Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) said that if the KMT loses the elections, Taiwan would become a “corrupt island” and a “dishonest country.” Saying he was “shocked” to see the judiciary become “Chen’s personal hit men,” Chung urged voters to come out to banish “dinosaur judges” and protect the judicial system.
“The ruling clears the name of the KMT, which has been accused of using the judicial system to serve its own interests,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) said there was a significant gap between the verdict and public opinion since various opinion polls showed a majority of respondents were unhappy with the verdict.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said a private group calling itself the anti-corruption alliance placed a half-page ad in the Chinese-language China Times and United Daily News yesterday criticizing the ruling and urging voters to use their ballots to recover Taiwan’s honesty and justice.
Fai urged the DPP’s Taipei mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Sinbei City mayoral candidate (and DPP Chairperson) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to say where they stood on the issue.
Fai also challenged Su to renew his claims that the corruption accusations against Chen were politically motivated.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), a former DPP member, broke his silence to slam the verdict.
Approached for comment after visiting former Kaohsiung mayor Su Nan-cheng (蘇南成) for support, Yang said the verdict failed to live up to public expectations, and that it was wrong to take money from other people.
Yang’s campaign spokeswoman Tseng Yin-li (曾尹儷) told reporters at a separate setting that Yang used to support Chen because he did not know the former president was “so corrupt.”
Yang left the DPP to run as an independent.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who is running for mayor of Greater Kaohsiung, urged the Control Yuan to censure Taipei District Court presiding Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) over the Chen verdict.
Huang and KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) went to the Control Yuan to accuse Chou of neglecting his duties.
Meanwhile, the DPP said the latest moves by KMT politicians targeting Chou were an attempt to “hijack” the judiciary.
“Just because they are unhappy with the ruling, [the KMT] is willing to undermine the [independence] of the judiciary,” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
DPP lawmakers said the KMT’s reaction, along with an “anti-corruption” rally the KMT is planning for Nov. 21, appear to be motivated by the upcoming elections.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and Vincent Y. Chao
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS