Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lambasted the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for waging a political vendetta against him and members of the former government, saying that democracy and the rule of law had regressed to the dark age of the Martial Law era.
“I am here solemnly protesting,” he said in a statement read by Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), editor-in-chief of Contemporary Magazine, at an international press conference in Taipei. “My protests and accusations are not just for my own benefit ... but for the sake of Taiwan's freedom, democracy, human rights, justice and its independence.”
Chen denied any wrongdoing in his statement yesterday. He said his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), had wired leftover election funds to overseas accounts without his knowledge, but denied it was dirty money.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
Yesterday's press conference attracted some Chen supporters who chanted “release A-bian [Chen's nickname],” “A-bian innocent” and “political persecution,” and held banners that read “Taiwanese are not Chinese, just like Americans are not Englishmen” and “Taiwan jiayou.”
“I believe the verdict in my case has long been reached in advance and that my sentence has already been determined because it is not really up to the prosecutors and judges who are merely following orders to make such decisions,” Chen said in the statement.
Conducting more judicial proceedings would not hide the fact that the government is waging a political vendetta against its political opponents, his statement said, adding that the Ma administration was using its campaign against corruption as a cover-up to smear and vilify the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for promoting Taiwan-centered consciousness.
“I may be the first person persecuted, but I believe I will not be the last one,” Chen said.
The former president said that a new authoritarian regime was taking shape, and with the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) one-party rule working in consonance with the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan's judiciary had become a tool for political suppression and persecution.
He criticized the Ma administration for leaning heavily on China in exchange for small favors, adding that after the KMT returned to power, it launched a relentless campaign to “purge and cleanse” the former DPP administration.
The best example, he said, was their decision to handcuff him, hold him incommunicado and isolate him from the world soon after Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan.
He said he was willing to put his political donations under public scrutiny, but the same standards must apply to all politicians, including the KMT's dubious assets.
Chen was first detained last November and released in December. He was detained again and has remained in custody since Dec. 30. Chen was indicted for money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his presidency. His wife was charged with corruption and forgery in connection with Chen's use of a special presidential fund known as the “state affairs fund.”
At a separate setting yesterday, the DPP slammed prosecutors for delaying their investigations into KMT officials' use of their special allowances. DPP legislators filed lawsuits in May 2007 with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, accusing 97 KMT officials — including Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — of misusing their special allowances during their tenure as public officials.
“More than 600 days have passed, but prosecutors have not completed their probe and publicly announced the results,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference.
Prosecutors, who only investigated pan-green officials but not pan-blue officials, had become government tools who use double standards in dealing with government officials' use of their special allowances, she said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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
RSS