A prominent Taiwanese-American organization on Friday accused the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration of eroding Taiwan’s democracy during his term, and charged it with conducting a spate of “politically inspired” arrests of opposition leaders over the past two weeks.
The organization, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) based in Washington, asked the US government to express its concern over what it called the “deterioration of human rights and democracy in Taiwan” under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration of Ma.
In its biting statement, FAPA, a leading pro-green lobbying group, also recalled the days of martial law “White Terror” under earlier KMT rule.
The arrests — coming just before a visit from China’s top cross-strait negotiator, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) — have resulted in the detention of four Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians and the indictment of a fifth on charges ranging from corruption and embezzlement to assault.
The latest case involved former National Security Council secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who was detained on Friday on suspicion of embezzling US$500,000 from a diplomatic fund.
Chiou, who is also a former deputy premier, was considered in Washington to be one of the prime diplomatic and political liaisons between the administrations of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and US President George W. Bush through much of the Chen administration.
His detention came within days of other indictments and detentions. Tainan City Councilor Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) was indicted in connection with a melee in which visiting ARATS Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) fell to the ground during a visit to Tainan in advance of Chen’s trip. DPP Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and former environmental protection minister James Lee (李界木) were both detained.
Complaining about the Ma administration’s legal action against those four officials, FAPA also cited the Oct. 15 arrest of former interior minister Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) in Kaohsiung on corruption charges.
In a statement, FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) called the prosecutions unfair and a violation of the officials’ basic rights.
“We also question the fairness of the procedures: While one or two of the accused have been formally charged, the majority are being held incommunicado and without charge,” he said.
“This is a severe contravention of the writ of habeas corpus and a basic violation of due process, justice and the rule of law. In the meantime, the prosecutor’s offices leak detrimental information to the press. This kind of ‘trial by press’ is unacceptable,” Yang said.
In urging the US government and Congress to express “their deep concern” over the situation, Yang said, “the present cases endanger the progress made during the 21 years since the end of the Kuomintang’s [KMT] martial law in 1987. As members of the Taiwanese-American community, we believe that a return to the KMT’s ‘White Terror’ days of 1945 to 1987 should be avoided at all cost.”
Yesterday in Taipei, former vice-president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) also condemned the government for its detention of Chiou and other aides of the former president, calling the detentions a violation of human rights.
“I’ve not seen such large-scale detainments since the Kaohsiung Incident. It seems like the prosecutors detained people before finding any evidence, and I feel disturbed by such a procedure,” she said.
The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, was an anti-government demonstration organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec. 10, 1979. The event turned into a violent confrontation, and as a result, Lu and seven other pro-democracy activists were arrested by the former KMT government.
Lu said recent developments in the allegations against former president Chen Shui-bian and his former aides were “unbelievable” to her, adding it was difficult for her to believe that what the prosecutors have said was all true.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat