No “Troublemaker”: Ma meets Búcaro, advocates Conflict Resolution

Leonel Búcaro, president of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), met with Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday. Radio Taiwan International (RTI) quotes Ma as saying that he had always advocated peaceful resolution of international conflicts, no matter if cross-strait relations (i. e. relations with China), or a fisheries agreement with Japan, was the issue. He would continue to promote international peace and cooperation under the the premise of putting aside disagreements and creating mutual benefit (擱置爭議、共創雙贏).  It had been this attitude which had turned the Taiwan Strait, once a point of conflict, into a road of peace and prosperity, and a place very different from the Korean peninsula’s current status, Ma said.

President Ma also referred to a proposal he said he had issued last year in August, suggesting that mainland China, Japan and Taiwan could have separate bilateral consultations to lower tensions and promote common development of resources in the East China Sea. Ma cited the Japanese-Taiwanese fisheries agreement of earlier this month as an example of how to make sure that fishing vessels from both sides wouldn’t interfere with each other, without affacting either side’s sovereignty.

He also expressed great gratitude and admiration (非常感佩) for the Central American Parliament’s support for his East China Sea initiative (a resolution passed in February), and support for Taiwanese participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (a resolution passed in March), in activities of the UN United Nations Framework Convention on Climate, and Taiwanese participation in international affairs in general.

Búcaro and his delegation arrived in Taiwan on April 28 for a six-day visit, according to Taiwan’s state newsagency CNA. He is a member of El Salvadors left-wing FMLN party and was elected last October for a one-year term. The Central American Parliament was established in Guatemala-City in 1991. According to Parlacen, its twenty direct representatives are directly elected from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and the Dominican Republic, and the former presidents and vice presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic are also members. It is yet to achieve the goals it would take to make it a real parliament; its objective is to realize the integration of the Central American countries. [...] The parliamentary groups reflect the ideological lines of the members of the Central American Parliament and are organized according to the political orientation of their parties.

Búcaro’s delegation includes members from all six Parlacen member states. They were also scheduled to meet Taiwanese foreign ministry officials including deputy foreign minister Simon Ko (柯森耀), legislative-yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), environmental protection officials, and other officials.

El Salvador is one of currently 22 UN member states (plus the Vatican state) who maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Taiwan, along with Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico, is an observation state to Parlacen.

Taiwan’s military academy (Republic of China Military Academy, ROCMA) trains military from diplomatic allies. In 2010, this included trainees from El Salvador.  Such exchange programs play a contributing role in cementing diplomatic ties with our allies, Taiwan Today, a ministry of foreign affairs magazine, quoted then ROCMA superintendent Chuan Tzu-jui (全子瑞) in October 2010. Michael E. Allison, a researcher of Central American affairs, didn’t come across much about the Salvadorian-Taiwanese military relationship at the time, but noticed that [i]t doesn’t appear that El Salvador’s relationship with Taiwan (rather than China) has caused any trouble within the FMLN (i. e. Búcaro’s party), which has been in government in El Salvador since 2009.

Not much can be found online about Taiwan’s role in El Salvador’s civil war either, but if Taipei clearly took sides at the time (which doesn’t seem unlikely),  even at home, the incumbent president reportedly disavowed any plans to judge his party’s enemies from the country’s civil war. Either way, political allegiance at home doesn’t seem to define dedication to foreign allies. When Ma Ying-jeou visited El Salvador in summer 2009 to attend the FMLN president-elect Mauricio Funes‘ inauguration, he also met with outgoing president Antonio Saca who is a member of the ARENA party, a party founded by a death-squad leader, Roberto d’Aubuisson. Saca was reportedly late for his meeting with Ma, and cut the scheduled meeting short. According to the Taipei Times, Saca had been close to former president Chen Shui-bian.

On Monday, president Ma, at an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the “Wang-Koo summit”, vowed [..] that his government would not seek or promote independence from the mainland, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

“We will not push for ‘two Chinas, one China, one Taiwan’, or Taiwan’s independence, within or outside” Taiwan, he said at an event in Taipei marking the 20th anniversary of the “Wang-Koo summit”.

In an interview with the BBC‘s Rachel Harvey, in 2011, Ma said that we do not want to be a troublemaker. We want to be an enabler of peace. It seems that this has remained his constant tune in meetings with foreigners, officials or not.
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Related

» Advocate medical parole for Chen Shui-bian, Carribean News Now, April 30, 2013
» 萨尔瓦多外交部竟三次称“台湾共和国”, Huanqiu Shibao, June 2, 2009

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Even if Peace isn’t Peace, “Taiwan must try to Conclude a Peace Accord with the PRC”

Now that President Ma Ying-jeou has been re-elected, Taiwan must try to conclude a peace accord with the People’s Republic of China, writes Joe Hung, in an article for the (pan-blue) China Post. Hung blames former president Chen Shui-bian (DPP) for China’s “anti-secession law”, and basically credits Lien Chan, the then-chairman of the Kuomintang, with having made a journey of peace to declare together with Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Hu Jintao in Beijing to work toward a peace accord across the Taiwan Strait.

A peace accord would have nothing to do with Chinese unification, Hung adds. Rather, the pact is one to end formally the long Chinese civil war, which started or resumed right after World War II. Lee Teng-hui’s administration had put an end to Chiang Kai-shek’s civil war, but Beijing has never accepted Taipei’s claim that the war is over.

Hung argues that the Chinese civil war hadn’t begun as a war between two sovereign states, but international law applied now, because the People’s Republic exists side by side with the Republic of China in Taiwan:

The difficulty facing Beijing and Taipei is that of the rectification of names. Taiwan has to negotiate with China as an independent, sovereign state named the Republic of China while the People’s Republic, with the endorsement of the United Nations, regards it as one of its provinces. But there is a modus operandi. There exist the “private-profit organizations” of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taipei and its Chinese counterpart Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). They have concluded 19 agreements in line with the modus vivendi of the “1992 Consensus,” a tacit pact under which both Taipei and Beijing are agreed that there is but one China whose connotations can be orally and separately enunciated.

Which makes me wonder what there would be to be gained for Taiwan, by a peace accord with China.  Hung himself points out how Taiwan would be in a much weaker position in such negotiations than China. What’s the use of a peace treaty or accord, if it isn’t sanctioned by the United Nations, and if any future Chinese aggression can still come in the name of “unification” – justified by a need to stop “secession”, or a need to establish any other kind of “order”  in the “province” of Taiwan, in accordance with the Chinese leaders’ wishes?

If the recommended path was taken, Hung writes,

Ma must initiate a referendum, which certainly will be adopted. The SEF and the ARATS can do the rest of the work. The new Legislative Yuan will ratify it to usher in a lasting peace across the Strait.

But it’s hard to see how “lasting peace” should be more likely with, than without an accord.

A-Gu suggests that

From Beijing’s perspective, the best course of action is to lock Taiwan in to some sort of political framework before anyone else can win or lose. From the KMT’s perspective, this is also beneficial, as it gives them the option of painting any non-’92 policy the DPP may advocate as “dangerous,” as they’ve just done, but perhaps with a stronger effect. Indeed, both the KMT and CCP hope that they can ultimately force the DPP to adopt the ’92 consensus and eventually the “inevitability” of political integration.

Certainly, the idea of a “peace accord” sounds nice. “Peace” usually does. And as they once said at a conference organized by the UNESCO, “peace is a journey – a never-ending process”. That’s what many Taiwanese citizens could certainly live with.

But  the UNESCO had the role of religion on its mind, not negotiations between two sovereign states. If it is up to Beijing, there is a defined destination point for the journey Lien Chan – in Joe Hung’s view, anyway – started in April, 2005.

The two parties hope that the results of this visit and talks will help to increase the happiness of the compatriots on both sides of the strait, open up new prospects in cross-strait ties, and create the future for the Chinese nation,

the KMT-CPP agreement of April 29, 2005 said.

Peace isn’t necessarily war. But as long as China can only listen to its own narrative about Taiwan, and as long as Beijing remains committed to annex the country either by means of peace or war, peace isn’t really peace, either. The best result of the recommended negotiations would be the status quo – exactly what Taiwan has today. When there is nothing to gain, but a lot to lose, why should Taiwan’s government seek “peace talks”?

Soong Chu-yu’s BBC Interview: Can the Moor go Now?

James Soong Chu-yu, 2008 (Wikimedia Commons, click photo for source)

One thing can be said almost for sure: James Soong Chu-yu (宋楚瑜) has no plans to become Taiwan’s next president. You can’t describe both the KMT and the DPP as “unconstitutional” for not throwing themselves behind a goal of “reunification” with China, and expect to outdistance both president Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) and Tsai Ing-wen (DPP), come election day.  That more than 30 per cent of voters haven’t made up their minds yet (that’s what Soong said in his interview with the BBC‘s Chinese service,  published on Friday, GMT) doesn’t mean a lot, when assessing Soong’s prospects. Provided that the undecided are going to cast their vote at all, the  majority of them – be they 30 per cent of the electorate, or more, or less – will make a choice between incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou and opposition leader and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen.

It’s not the first time that Soong runs for president. In the 2000 presidential elections, he split the KMT’s electoral base by running as an independent, after losing the KMT’s presidential nomination to Lien Chan. And despite being a rather pro-Chinese candidate, Soong only narrowly lost to Chen Shui-bian (the oppositional DPP’s presidential nominee, and a strong advocate of international recognition of Taiwan’s sovereignty). Lien Chan, the KMT’s official candidate, came in third.

Back then, I heard many Chinese – and some Taiwanese – people speculate that all this had been a premeditated plan by outgoing president Lee Teng-hui to pave the way for Chen Shui-bian’s victory, to further the non-Chinese side of Taiwan’s identity. There are no run-off ballots in Taiwan’s presidential elections. It’s first-past-the-post.

Ma Ying-jeou certainly has better chances to get re-elected in January, than Lien Chan had to become president in 2000, if recent opinion polls are anything to go by. And one of the reasons is that Soong won’t come in second this time. He will come in third. But why then did he decide to run for Taiwan’s highest office at all?

Revenge against the KMT could be one explanation. Soong most probably knows how to cultivate old grudges. To spoil Ma Ying-jeou’s chances may mean more to him than “reunification with China”.

Another motivation may be ongoing negotiations with the KMT – they are most probably still going on. The KMT has long accused Soong of having taken NT-$ 240 million of assets from the KMT in 1999. That wasn’t necessarily unauthorized, but the way KMT wealth is allocated among its leading officials is by no means transparent, and judicial means to fight political enemies are routine tools in Taiwan. Soong may also still be seeking concessions in the campaigns for the Legislative Yuan – that KMT legislative candidates should give way for his own People-First Party’s candidates. (I’m not aware of a law or regulation that would bar candidates from throwing in the towel, even last-minute, in favor of another party’s candidate.)

But a more respectable reason shouldn’t be left out of the account either. There certainly are Taiwanese citizens who share Soong’s expressed view that China is “a member of the family”, and therefore “more than a friend”^*). Soong’s candidacy will  give these citizens an opportunity to vote for a candidate who seems to be closer to their views on China (no matter if that, or something else, motivated him to join the race).

Another question seems to be if China’s leaders wanted Soong to throw his hat into the ring. If so (but that’s a big “if”, of course), this would suggest that Beijing is much less worried about Tsai Ing-wen becoming president, than what most utterances from Beijing, or their reflection in the international media, would suggest – and that Ma Ying-jeou either never was, or no longer is, quite the cornerstone in China’s Taiwan policy.

Has the Moor done his duty?

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Note

^*) 一家親, BBC, November 25

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Related

“Too strong to describe it as pressure”, Taipei Times, Nov 27, 2011

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Links: When You’re not Supposed to Pull the Trigger

Hot-Air balloon, October 2011

By announcing negotiations on a peace treaty with China (Beijing appeared to be unaware of any plans for such a generous offer, btw), president Ma Ying-jeou had acted recklessly, argues Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who served as Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and as Taiwan’s unofficial ambassador to the United States under former DPP president Chen Shui-bian.

One inevitable result of a formal end of the civil war and a peace agreement would be that the foundation for such security cooperation would no longer exist, as Taiwan would have become part of China. Similarly, the foundation for the Taiwan Relations Act would no longer exist,

Wu wrote in an article for the Taipei Times, published on Saturday. Wu thus adds an international or military-alliance perspective to Ma Ying-jeou’s quick-and-messy initiative of October 17. When it comes to the fate Ma’s concept met at home, it didn’t bode well either. It kept Ma himself busy – he repeatedly added (conflicting) footnotes to his own plan within a week.

It is easy to create some stresses for oneself with a few comments on Taiwan’s status, all the same. Wu certainly understands that. In May this year, both the DPP and Wu himself felt it necessary to clarify that a statement made to a conference in the U.S. were just an expression of [Wu's] own opinion and did not necessarily reflect the official position of the DPP.

Meantime, German police complain too much, believes a certain Rafael Behr, once an active policeman, now professor at the Hamburg Police Academy. Tai De takes issue with what Behr writes – except for the need to be prepared for armed hostilities. No, I think I got this wrong. But they seem to agree that there is a need to be prepared for some violence, anyway.

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Updates (October 31, 2011)

Another trigger-related article here:

Syria has to show some flexibility in that regard in order to help the Arab League implement its proposal.

Wu Sike, China’s special envoy for the Middle East, when asked (in Cairo) whether he believed Assad’s regime should negotiate with overseas-based dissident groups (Telegraph, October 31, 2011).

And on the same paper:

The first component of popular legitimacy is your personal life. It is very important how you live. I live a normal life. I drive my own car, we have neighbours, I take my kids to school. That’s why I am popular. It is very important to live this way – that is the Syrian style.

Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with the Telegraph‘s reporter Andrew Gilligan last week.

UDN / CNA: “Su Jia-chyuan Reminds us of Chen Shui-bian”

DPP’s vice presidential nominee Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) is accused of having declared a mansion a farmhouse, so as to use agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.

United Daily News (聯合新聞網, UDN) and the China Times (中時電子報),  both KMT-leaning, carried the story on Thursday. Excerpts from the UDN article are available in English, on the official Central News Agency‘s (CNA) website. UDN comes across as more vocal than the China Times – “Su Jia-chyuan reminds us of Chen Shui-bian”, says UDN. This appears to be over-egged when considering that many of the charges against former DPP president Chen Shui-bian after his presidency were criminal charges, while those against Su Jia-chyuan may just amount to a regulatory offense, or maybe not even that. But then, only Su’s pattern of defending himself “reminds us”, i. e. UDN, of Chen Shui-bian, anyway.

The China Times, on the other hand, compares Su with Chen Shui-bian’s predecessor, Lee Teng-hui (李登輝, KMT chairman during his presidency, and a KMT member until some time after his last term as president). Lee is praised by the China Times for his steadfastness in defending farmland against legislators who wanted restrictions on land sales to be relaxed, back in 1998. Lee had backed government offices which opposed the motion, even if with limited or without success, the China Times seems to suggest.

“Limited farmland sales” became legal “under certain conditions”, in September 1998.

Defending the liberalization measures at the time, president Lee, himself an agricultural economist and former cabinet minister without portfolio, responsible for agriculture, called for reserving the remaining arable land for agricultural development which should follow the example of the Netherlands.

Land ownership, landuse rights and land seizures have remained a controversial issues in Taiwan. Only in July this year,

Hundreds of angry Taiwanese farmers staged a protest in Taipei overnight, demanding the government abandon proposals that would make it easier for their land to be forcibly turned over to developers,

reported AFP.

In that light, the allegations  against Su Jia-chyuan must be welcome news for the KMT headquarters. If they are going to evaporate or if they will pose a threat to his popularity remains to be seen. The China Times’ headline, too, is pregnant with election campaign issues – “Su Jia-chyuan doesn’t live up to Lee Teng-hui” (苏嘉全对不起李登辉), it reads.

Lee, no longer a KMT member, but now leader of a rather pan-green (i. e. opposition) party, was charged with embezzlement in summer this year, and his trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 21.

Meantime, Tsai Ing-wen, DPP chairwoman and her party’s presidential candidate, has returned from a visit to Japan where she was “slighted” by Taiwan’s representative in Tokyo, John Feng (馮寄台), who picked up his wife at the airport instead – reportedly thirty minutes before Tsai’s arrival there.

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Related

» If King Ma Loses…, October 4, 2011

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If King Ma never Returns… it may not be James Soong’s Fault

Wong Chong Xia (黃創夏) isn’t exactly one of DPP presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen‘s biggest fans (at least, that isn’t what the following article , written by him and  published by the China Times on Tuesday, would suggest). The China Times (中國時報) itself is considered to be pan-blue-leaning, even if more moderately so than another pro-KMT paper, the United Daily News.

King Ma, the Confident Campaigner

Given the China Times’ (supposedly) moderately pan-blue background, the following article seems to express a lot of frustration with the way incumbent Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou‘s re-election campaign is conducted – frustration felt by Wong Chong Xia – the author – himself, and possibly the paper’s frustration, too.

The article was apparently first published as a blogpost, and the headline reads Without Soong Chu-yu, Ma Ying-jeou may still Lose (沒有宋楚瑜，馬英九也會輸).

My translation isn’t doing justice to the original, and input to improve it will be welcome.

[Update - December 10, 2011: the China Times link seems to be broken, but the article is still available here.]

[Main Link:
http://news.chinatimes.com/realtime/110101/112011100401672.html
]

Preface: Can they only act the  “stooge”, can they only go on and on blaming Song Chu-yu (or James Soong), can they only keep comparing themyourselves to Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s worst and most corrupt president, to find that they are “not that rotten after all”, and, proud just like “creditors”, arrogantly believe that the voters should “reciprocate for Ma Ying-jeou’s fairness”, and, like useless little boys, complain – the way  Ma Ying-jeou did to his elder sister Ma Yi-nan after the Morakot disaster -, that “good people weren’t rewarded!” ?? These are the essential reasons for Ma Ying-jeou’s self-destruction.

前言：只會當「跟屁蟲」、只會怪宋楚瑜、只會天天拿自己和台灣史上最糟糕與最腐敗的陳水扁「比不爛」、只會天天像「債主」一樣，驕傲地認為選民應該要「還馬英九公道」、只會像個沒用的小男孩，如同莫拉克風災後，馬英九向馬以南大姐抱怨的「哼，好人沒好報！」？？？這些，才是馬英九「自毀」的基本原因。

Surprise! Tsai Ing-wen’s shadow is already emerging in Japan, but this time round, King Pu-tsung’s inseparable shadow hasn’t yet been spotted there?

奇怪！蔡英文的身影已經在日本出現了，這一回，怎麼沒有看到金溥聰如影隨形的身影？

That’s the way to do things! Six feet tall and stalwart, full of dignity, well-fed and nothing else to do, rushing in the wake of a woman, she turns east, so does he; the woman turns west, so does he, just like another Deng Tuzi, only a prig demonstrating what a strawbag he is.

這樣才對嘛！六尺昂藏、氣宇軒昂的男人，吃飽沒事幹，緊緊追在一個女子的後面，她往東，男子也往東；女子往西，男子也轉向西，這樣的男人，只像一個「登徒子」，只是一個虛有其表的草包。

Facing the 2012 elections, the two Ying camps [Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai (Y)ing-wen]  are without rhyme or reason, the ruling party with all the advantages on its side, should be in a position to remain calm and composed while handling their affairs. As the opposition is in difficulties in all respects, they [the ruling party, KMT] should be firing on all cylinders. But in Taiwan, the winner chooses the loser’s strategy, in hot pursuit on all fronts, as the loser applies the winner’s strategy, handling things with cool heads.

面對二○一二大選，雙英陣營打的莫名其妙，執政的一方掌握一切優勢，本該好整以暇；在野的一方處處艱困，應該全面出擊。偏偏在台灣，贏家用輸家的打法，處處緊追；輸家用贏家的戰法，時時「冷處理」。

This strategy will become a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. When the rulers self-fulfilling prophecy is a “loser’s pattern”, they won’t gain at the others’ [the opposition's] expense, but add to [the opposition's] momentum instead.

這樣的打法，將會變成是一種「自我預言」，當執政一方自我預言是「輸家格局」時，終究討不到便宜，反而拉抬了對手的氣勢。

[...]

Just as it was today! Tsai Ing-wen was the one who looked like the KMT’s “leader” – Tsai gave her opinion, and Ma Ying-jeou “followed right at her bottom”, aping her at every step, like a political Deng Tuzi without convictions of his own. Apart from real hardcore Ma fans, who would still dare to vote for such this a “stooge” without values, who would still vote for Ma Ying-jeou?

如今！蔡英文才比較像是國民黨的「領導者」，蔡英文的意見，馬英九「緊跟蔡英文的屁股後面」，亦步亦趨，只像個沒有信念的「政治登徒子」。除了鐵桿馬迷之外，誰還敢投給這樣一個沒有理念，只是「跟屁蟲」的馬英九？

[...]

More importantly, the pan-blue camp keeps believing that the Soong Chu-yu factor was causing them trouble. Look at the surveys more closely. Ma Ying-jeou’s support rate never exceeds a ten-percent lead over Tsai Ing-wen, and the pan-green camp’s voting rate has always been stronger than the pan-blue camp’s, and past experience shows that when it is a one-on-one race, and the pan-blue camp’s lead isn’t better than ten per cent, it is the loser when the ballots are counted on election night.

更重要的是，泛藍還一直以為是「宋楚瑜因素」在作祟。請詳看諸家民調，馬英九的支持度領先蔡英文都不超過十％，泛綠投票強度一向遠高於泛藍，過去的經驗值，如果一對一競選，泛藍的領先不超過十％，開票那一夜，九成以上是輸家。

Soong Chu-yu isn’t the problem, stupid! Soong is playing a “political werewolf’s” game of schemes and political tricks, acting as the defender of Taiwan’s fruits of democracy – everyone can beat the drum to go on the attack. But even without the Soong factor, Ma Ying-jeou may lose to Tsai Ing-wen, and this is what the “King-Ma command center” should seriously reflect upon.

笨蛋，問題根本不是宋楚瑜！宋楚瑜玩弄選舉，要當一個操弄政治搞權謀與權術的「政治狼人」，為捍衛台灣的民主果實，人人可鳴鼓而攻之。但是，就算沒有宋楚瑜因素，馬英九也可能會輸給蔡英文，才該是「金馬指揮部」該虛心反省之處。

Can the King-Ma command center only act the  “stooge”, can they only go on and on blaming Song Chu-yu (or James Soong), can they only keep comparing themselves to Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s worst and most corrupt president, to find that they are “not that rotten after all”, and, proud just like “creditors”, arrogantly believe that the voters should “reciprocate for Ma Ying-jeou’s fairness”, and, like useless little boys, complain – the way  Ma Ying-jeou did to his elder sister Ma Yi-nan after the Morakot disaster -, that “good people weren’t rewarded!” ?? These are the essential reasons for Ma Ying-jeou’s self-destruction.

金馬指揮部只會當「跟屁蟲」、只會怪宋楚瑜、只會天天拿自己和台灣史上最糟糕與最腐敗的陳水扁「比不爛」、只會天天像「債主」一樣，驕傲地認為選民應該要「還馬英九公道」、只會像個沒用的小男孩，如同莫拉克風災後，馬英九向馬以南大姐抱怨的「哼，好人沒好報！」？？？這些，才是馬英九「自毀」的基本原因。

You people there, smart folks like King Pu-tsung and Ma Ying-jeou, wake up! Let Taiwan see a future with a sense of direction and a sense of responsibility, and you won’t need to remain “Deng Tuzis” behind a woman’s rear, and above all, you won’t need to hide behind Bei-bei Soong’s back where you will only be pitied!

聰明如金溥聰與馬英九，醒醒吧！請讓台灣看到一個「有方向感」與「責任感」的未來，而不要仍是一個跟在婦女背後的「登徒子」，更不要以為躲在「宋杯杯」背後就會被同情！

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Related

» Tsai seeks Ally in Japan, VoA, Oct 4, 2011
» Ma no Persian Cat, August 23, 2011
» Wong Chong Xia’s blog, info

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After Re-trial: KMT Lawmaker blames Chen Shui-bian “Moles in the Judiciary”

After Chen was given the “not guilty” verdict, Chiu Yi (邱毅), a legislator from the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), expressed his shock at the outcome of the retrial, which he said was a focus of world attention.
The justices have sold their souls to the devil, Chiu said, adding the country was now one in which “all are guilty except Chen and his family”,

,writes the China Post, reporting the results a re-trial of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁, of the oppositional Democratic Progressive Party, DPP) and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on Friday. Chen and his family were also given lighter sentences in two other cases, than in previous trials, reports the China Post.

According to the BBC,

[..] Taiwan’s High Court has acquitted Chen of the charge [of embezzling some $5m (£3m) from a special presidential fund while he was in power].

The court, however, found him guilty of money laundering and forging documents, and handed down the additional two-year sentence. That brings his overall sentence to about 20 years.

Chen’s wife, former first lady Wu Shu-chen, received a longer sentence of nearly 12 years at the retrial, but she is unlikely to spend any time in prison because of her poor health, says the BBC’s Cindy Sui in Taipei.

On September 11, 2009, Chen had been sentenced to life in prison. Most recently, his total sentence had been at 17.5 years in jail, and the latest round added two years and eight months to that, writes the Taipei Times. Previous convictions for a role in the use of fraudulent receipts to obtain reimbursement for spending from the state affairs fund, and in a money laundering case that concerned a land deal in Taoyuan County’s Longtan were upheld and led to the (even if partly commuted) additional time in jail. According to the Special Investigation Division (SID) under the Taiwan Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said that it would appeal the verdicts, claiming the public would have difficulty accepting the new sentences, according to the China Post.

The BBC report quotes analysts saying that the ruling could appease Chen’s supporters and help President Ma Ying-jeou, who is seeking re-election in the upcoming January presidential race, plus the station’s correspondent in Taiwan as suggesting that quite to the contrary, it could also help the opposition party which Chen once led, by giving it more leverage to accuse the governing party of playing politics in prosecutions.

To Chiu Yi, the KMT lawmaker quoted at the beginning of this post, the evidence is clear:

Chen really has many moles operating in the judiciary, Chiu concluded,

according to the China Post

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Related

» Acquitted of one Charge, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Aug 26, 2011
» Taiwan’s Unbelievable Justice, September 12, 2009

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Taihan: Nothing to Say about Lee Teng-hui’s Corruption Case?

Taihan, a new blog on the block, offers an incomplete, but still comparatively comprehensive, review of Taiwanese press coverage of former president Lee Teng-hui‘s indictment for embezzlement, comparing it with previous coverage of another former president’s – Chen Shui-bian‘s – indictment.

Taihan welcomes speculation from commenters.

Maybe we can add some surveys, or methodic recommendations of our own, too. Somewhat systematic approaches may not be as easy to do as mere expressions of condemnation, doubt, or support – but they could be a promising approach to actually gaining insights of our own into Taiwanese politics.

Please comment there »

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Related Tag: Lee Teng-hui.

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