The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday concluded its investigation into allegations that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) disclosed official secrets and solicited their disclosure, charging him with contravention of the Criminal Code, the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) and the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Two years ago, former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming was convicted and given a prison sentence, but the investigation into Ma’s actions could not begin until he stepped down as president. Not stopping at violating the Constitution, causing political turmoil and violating fundamental human rights to purge his political enemies is a stain on Ma’s image as a temperate and gentle person.
Ma illegally used the Special Investigation Division’s wiretapping unit to obtain intelligence and instructed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Evaluation and Discipline Committee to expel then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in an attempt to deprive Wang of his status as legislator-at-large and his position as speaker.
Not only was this one of the main political incidents of 2013, it also had a major influence on the Sunflower movement the following year and the legislative and presidential elections last year.
The division’s illegal wiretapping involved an operator at the Legislative Yuan, news of which set off a storm of protests from the government, opposition parties and the public.
In February 2015, the High Court ruled that Huang had disclosed secret information, including information and communication records about an ongoing investigation, to the president and the premier. The court sentenced Huang to 15 months in prison, commutable to a fine, for violating the Communication Security and Surveillance Act and the Criminal Code.
Huang’s verdict anticipated Ma’s fate after stepping down as president. Perhaps time will tell whether Huang will be allowed to keep his pension as a result of any backdoor deals.
The so-called “September strife” was probably the straw that broke the back of the Ma administration. In 2008, Ma had full control of the three main branches of government and not even the KMT Central Standing Committee would utter a dissenting opinion.
An abstract ideology and a power struggle were the reasons Ma had problems tolerating Wang. During their race for the party chairmanship in 2005, Ma leveled corruption accusations against Wang, perhaps foreshadowing the 2013 clash.
It seems Ma was attempting to put an end to qualitative changes that were taking place in the KMT and did not tolerate that more Taiwan-oriented people were becoming dominant.
During the September strife, it was not difficult to see that Ma would go to any length to weed out people with differing opinions.
The preposterous thing was that although Ma doubled as president and KMT chairman, he lost the political battle, which planted the seeds for the defeat of the pro-China faction. If it had not occurred against the backdrop of the September strife, it is quite possible that the development of the Sunflower movement could have taken a different turn.
In September last year, Ma revealed the content of preparatory talks for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a public address, although the negotiation process and the content of the talks had been labeled a state secret by Ma’s administration, which refused to let the legislature monitor the process.
This is typical of Ma: When he wants to show off his power he abandons all consideration of democracy and the rule of law. Taiwan is a democracy, but Ma turned it into a dictatorship and did as he pleased. His only concern was policies that promoted his goal of eventual unification and he therefore opened up to China without any restrictions, ignoring the well-being of ordinary Taiwanese and their right to make a choice.
As a result, a fury that went beyond the blue-green political divide and lasted from the Sunflower movement in 2014 to the presidential and legislative elections last year swept the KMT into opposition.
The KMT’s policy of joining hands with China to restrain Taiwan quickly lost domestic support, shaking the model of cross-strait exchanges within a “one China” framework.
The lawsuits dealing with leaking secrets and inciting others to do so originate from the September strife, and the KMT is still trying to heal itself after a series of defeats.
The Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) branch, which has lost all connection with the public, has come to play a crucial part in the party’s ongoing chairmanship election, and the final battle will be about winning the support of this minority group, rather than that of a majority of the public. Any display of a Taiwan-oriented viewpoint will be viewed as a sin.
At first blush, this would appear to be a ripple effect of KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) ideological stance, but a closer look implies that it is an extension of the political power struggle between Ma and Wang, and even fervent supporters of Hung who criticize Ma cannot escape the ideological curse.
The KMT does not seem to understand the extent of its defeat, and the party as a whole continues to move along in the same direction that cost them the elections, as it continues to take a belligerent approach to transitional justice, the return of its ill-gotten assets and pension and judicial reform, while blocking moves to identify with, protect and defend national security and gathering people to “bring down the government.”
Surely they are not trying to go one step further and bring down the nation?
Ma is being brought to justice. The situation is no longer what it was when he won the presidency in 2008, proof that Taiwan’s democracy continues to move forward.
Following his indictment, Ma said: “I am confident in my innocence, and I will explain it to the court.”
A majority of the public hopes that ongoing judicial reform efforts will allow courts to remain neutral and that Taiwanese will not have to see yet another example of the double standards that were applied to special affairs fund and state affairs fund cases.
As Taiwan’s biggest opposition party, the KMT must step out of Ma’s shadow, welcome the ongoing reforms and find a way to remake itself and pull itself back together.
If it continues to cling to “one China” and turn its back on mainstream public opinion, there will be no more gifts such as the one it received in 2008.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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