Last Thursday, Keelung Mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was sentenced to seven years in prison and deprived of his civil rights for eight years after being found guilty of corruption. He had used his position to facilitate a land deal for his own profit.
Last December, when Hsu was running for re-election, he was already under suspicion, but Taipei Mayor and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) campaigned for him anyway and he won. In May, Hsu was formally indicted.
What was Ma's reaction? He refused to revoke Hsu's KMT membership because, he said, being indicted does not constitute guilt.
It is true: Indictment does not constitute guilt. Remember that as Point One.
In the meantime, former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (
The supposed theme of their anti-Chen campaign is "anti-corruption."
But is the president guilty of anything? No.
Has the president been indicted for anything? No.
Still, at Shih's and the pan-blue camp's insistence, a president who has not even been indicted must step down from office. Remember that as Point Two.
Who has been indicted? The president's son-in-law -- on insider trading.
Let us return to Point One. The aspersion of guilt in this case is not on the president but on his son-in-law. For Shih's Red Guard, the president must therefore step down.
We thus move on to Hau Lung-bin (
Hau Lung-bin, however, should not withdraw his candidacy because indictment does not constitute guilt. Besides, it is his father who is under scrutiny, and not him.
And he is KMT.
Ma's position on all of this is hard to define.
He flip-flops depending on who he is talking to. He has apologized and then he has not. He has said that an apology is not necessary.
After all, Hsu was first elected mayor when Lien Chan (
That latter remark may be debatable, but Ma seems to have forgotten we are not comparing corruption with corruption. Instead, we have a convicted, corrupt mayor being held up against a president who has not been convicted or even indicted.
There has been no rush by Shih Ming-teh's Red Guard to the ramparts of Keelung to say that justice has been done, that corruption has been found, and that Hsu Tsai-li should be hung from the highest tree.
As a matter of fact, we have heard no mention of the search for corruption in Keelung on in any other area where a pan-blue candidate is in office or in the running.
Point Three, therefore, is more of a question than a point: How long should the people of Taipei and Taiwan put up with the foolishness, hypocrisy and disruptiveness of Shih Ming-teh's Red Guard?
How long should the city have to pay for extra police hours, trash collection and obstruction of traffic and city services to satisfy the ego of a man who has long been out of a job, a man who has not won an election in over eight years but who hankers desperately for the limelight?
Jerome Keating is a Taiwan-based writer.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS