The pan-blue camp has been revitalized by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (
Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (
However, as there still is no uniform definition for the nature of the mayoral allowance, and as the initial ruling is just the legal interpretation of the judge, Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (
Although the ruling interprets the mayoral allowance as a subsidy, half of the receipts drawn on the allowance must still be verified and accounted for. This clearly demonstrates that these are not funds that mayors can spend on private expenses without any restrictions, use for non-official purposes or put into their pockets. Therefore, Tsai's interpretation is still debatable.
Saying Ma had no criminal intent because the amount of money he donated exceeded his special allowance conflates cause and effect. Most of Ma's donations were made after the special allowance scandal broke and were a measure to remedy his mistakes. Buying indulgences doesn't mean the sin was not committed in the first place.
Moreover, the court based its ruling only on a formal examination of the main documents in the case without looking into the true nature of the charges.
Ma has escaped punishment because he listened to his lawyer and insisted that he thought that the special mayoral allowance was a private fund. By doing so, he was able to stress that he never intended to misuse public funds.
But people who are not too forgetful might remember that at the outset of the case, Ma said in an interview that he was of the opinion that the special mayoral allowance was public money.
Of course the court cannot use statements made outside of the courtroom, but Ma has contradicted himself in and out of court.
Both Ma and Frank Hsieh (
If presidential candidates are placed under investigation, the fact that they are candidates means their ethical standards should be higher. Not breaking the law is the least that should be expected of them.
The judicial branch's monitoring of politicians can help ensure their honesty. The fact that a candidate is nervous before a verdict is handed down in his case shows that Taiwan's legal system is independent. In turn, this means that the nation has entered a new era and left the old days behind when the KMT leadership could say: "We own the courts."
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
RSS