President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said it was necessary to establish an anti-corruption commission following a recent slew of government corruption cases, including a scandal involving judges.
Ma said he felt distressed over the corruption scandals, but regret was not enough. Concrete action must be taken, he said.
“After listening to the assessment report of the Ministry of Justice [MOJ], both the premier and I think it is practical and feasible to establish a commission against corruption,” he told a press conference after hearing reports by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon.
PHOTO: AFP
Ma said he asked the MOJ and the Executive Yuan to present bills on creating such an agency to the legislature in a speedy manner. Tseng said he hoped to present the bills to the Executive Yuan and legislature during the next legislative session, which starts in September.
Ma said he made the decision based on three reasons. First was to buttress government efforts to combat corruption; second was in response to public expectations; and third to conform with international standards.
Ma’s decision was an apparent policy U-turn, as his party blocked a similar proposal at the legislature when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power on several occasions.
In addition to establishing a commission, Ma said he wanted government agencies to implement a code of conduct for civil servants and hold regular anti-corruption meetings.
Emphasizing the importance of clean government, Ma said he was determined to combat corruption and would not allow a few corrupt civil servants to tarnish the reputation of the public sector and the government.
“Some are doubtful that the commission would be able to resolve the problem of government corruption,” Ma said. “Of course we cannot rely solely on the unit to fix all the problems, but I have always believed that success in fighting corruption has a lot to do with the resolve of government leaders.”
Ma said the commission would be established under the MOJ. Taiwan would not copy the approach of Hong Kong or Singapore, where the units were established under the prime minister or president, Ma said, adding that its unique feature would be to specialize in fighting corruption and vote-buying.
The commission would serve as the “judicial police,” with the right to search, seize and detain, Ma said. At the initial stage, the unit would employ about 200 people and its ultimate goal would be to lower the crime rate and increase the conviction rate, Ma said.
Tseng, however, told a different story, saying preventing and fighting corruption would be its sole duty. Responding to the news, the DPP said the plan failed to address the root of the problem.
“If the KMT truly wanted to clean up the judiciary and pass judicial reforms, it would not have wasted a decade by blocking similar DPP proposals in the legislature a total of 177 times,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
He said the DPP proposal was more thorough and proposed a clear chain of responsibility, a complete budget and legal plan that would provide for full autonomy.
Lin said Ma’s plan was little more than a reshuffle of existing government agencies, likening it to a hastily assembled car and saying that it would fail to solve the root problem of the government corruption.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) urged the president to explain how the commission would not become a redundant organization.
Kuan said the president should also promise that the commission would serve as an independent government branch instead of becoming an intelligence agency working for the president.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO AND FLORA WANG
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS